My Reading List & Endorsements

 After a long day selling books, I regularly come home and check out more at my favorite local municipal institution, the Crystal Lake Public Library. I joke that I should have a plaque in there for all the ‘donations’ I’ve made to the library through the fines I’ve paid. I am an omnivore as a reader.

I subscribe to and read both the daily New York Times and the Wall Street Journal, and also our local Northwest Herald.

I read the weekly journal The Nation

I try to keep up with both Pat Murfin and Cal Skinner’s blogs.  Pat is my local precinct committeeman for the Democrats.  He is also running for Nunda Township Trustee, and I highly recommend that you check his and his co-candidate Meredith Sarkees’s website.  I’ll be casting exactly two votes for Nunda Township trustees, for Pat and Meredith.  Cal Skinner is a Republican (and our former State Representative), but on his blog he says he is going to vote for me despite the fact that I am a Democrat.  Both Pat and Cal, in different ways, help to keep me informed about what is happening in McHenry County. 

I also read the new McHenryDems.org website, where under elections, I see that my friends in Algonquin Township, Jim McTague, Bob Frank and Frank Hyden, are running as a team for the Algonquin Board of Trustees. I know these three gentlemen, and I can attest to their thoughtfulness and sobriety. If I lived in Algonquin Township, I’d be voting for exactly these three on April 7th.

Check out their website at: http://algonquintrustees.blogspot.com/

Who's Endorsing Me?

So, I’m endorsing them. Who’s endorsing me? As of last Wednesday, March 25th, the Daily Herald. And I’ve asked some of my favorite people on the McHenry County Board for their support, and they all offered to endorse me:

1. Barb Wheeler, whom I ran against for one of the District 3 County Board seats in 2006 (this shows that political contests do not always get in the way of friendship). You can read more about her at http://www.co.mchenry.il.us/common/countybrd/Members/BWheeler.asp.

2. Jim Kennedy, County Board District 5, who is the first Democrat to win a County Board seat since I’ve been living in the area. Jim is an inspiration to me as someone who is out in the community, knocking on doors and talking with people about issues that the County is faced with: http://www.co.mchenry.il.us/common/countybrd/Members/JKennedy.asp.

3. Kathy Bergan-Schmidt, County Board District 3, who helped me to get through the first wickets in the course of requirements to get on the ballot for MCC Trustee. She and I share many interests, including the County’s long-term social and economic development, and a commitment to environmental stewardship: http://www.co.mchenry.il.us/common/countybrd/Members/KSchmidt.asp.

I thank these three individuals for their support, along with all the other people who have encouraged me to run, and helped me put the pieces of my campaign in place so that I have a chance to get elected and serve.

Back To What I Read...

I haven’t read Doonesbury for many years, because it doesn’t show up in the newspapers published around here.  But since working to get Barack Obama elected, I feel I need to return to the one cartoonist who I think is going to be able to make me laugh about our new president and the world that surrounds his new administration.  So I found a link that will enable me to keep up. 

I read our local Town Crier, which is written and published by the formidable Iris Bryan.  In a great continuing service to the community, Iris investigates and pulls together material on issues facing our community and our governments, and is especially helpful when election time comes around.  You can request a subscription through email at: info@towncriercl.org.   

The two most interesting books I have read over the last ten years are BOWLING ALONE: THE COLLAPSE AND REVIVAL OF THE AMERICAN COMMUNITY, by Robert Putnam, and HERE COMES EVERYBODY: THE POWER OF ORGANIZING WITHOUT ORGANIZATIONS, by Clay Shirky.   The first uses an interesting observation about bowling leagues to diagnose a decline in what Putnam calls social capital in our society, and reflects on ways to rebuild it.  The second talks about how our communications technology is reducing the cost of failure, opening up possibilities for innovation, and for capturing what Shirky believes to be our “cognitive surplus,” waiting to be tapped and put to use to help us meet and overcome our challenges. Both books make me feel hopeful about the future of both education and democracy in our society.  

To create this site, I used a free template called Adam, from the Creative Commons cited below, along with a free WYSIWYG editor ('wysiwyg' stands for 'What you see is what you get'), called KompoZer.  This is the first website I've ever created.  I hope to show by running a successful campaign using it that ordinary citizens in McHenry County can, by using tools and institutions that are readily available, join in the process of self-governance that has distinguished this country for over 200 years.

The website was paid for by Citizens to Elect John Darger. A copy of our report filed with the County Clerk is (or will be) available for purchase from the County Clerk, Katherine C. Schultz, McHenry County Clerk, McHenry County Government Center 2200 N. Seminary Ave. Woodstock, IL 60098