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What we haven't heard in any of the pronouncements on the various Massachusetts State Police scandals is the one thing that's vital:
A full and public account of what happened.
One of the nation's most prestigious newspapers recently put out a weekend edition that prominently featured an essay on how much human life has improved in these last two centuries. The author is Harvard psychologist Steven Pinker, whom we have heard on more than one occasion described as the "smartest guy in the country."
His essay is stunning … in several ways. It celebrates two hundred years of human progress with a torrent of statistics. Here is a sample to encouraging factoids that support his thesis: In the 30 years since 1988, the U.S. homicide rate and poverty rate have decreased significantly. Despite being richer and driving many more miles than today, we spew far fewer tons of sulfur dioxide into the atmosphere compared with 1988.