Leadership Quote by John Shimkus

Shimkus is selling a classic Washington bargain: modernize communications, but keep power legible. The surface pitch is practical - “low-cost solutions,” “better communication,” “emergencies” - a triad designed to sound like stewardship rather than ideology. But the real work happens in the warning clause. “Chain of command” is less a technical concern than a political one: it frames information flow as something that must remain hierarchical, especially when stakes are high. In that framing, the problem isn’t just failed radios; it’s the possibility that too many people might coordinate outside official channels.

The line “We do not want everyone talking to everyone else all the time” lands like common sense, but it smuggles in a theory of the public. It treats lateral communication - peer-to-peer coordination, cross-agency improvisation, citizens sharing real-time updates - as noise that threatens authority. That anxiety fits the post-9/11 and post-Katrina era, when interoperability failures became a bipartisan scandal, but the proposed fix often doubled as control: centralized systems, standardized protocols, and permissions that decide who can speak when.

The intent is to reassure two audiences at once. To taxpayers: we’re not building a gold-plated network. To commanders and politicians: we’re not creating a communications free-for-all that could dilute responsibility or expose mistakes. Subtextually, “better communication” is defined not as more voices, but as the right voices being heard in the right order. In an age where social media and smartphones made “everyone talking” unavoidable, Shimkus is arguing for a managed network - a technological solution that preserves an old institutional instinct: clarity through constraint.