The thing about the Editorial Board is it’s modest. We don’t expect much. We don’t ask for much. We just want the freedom to do what we do well. One new subscriber every day is all that’s needed to do that. I hope you’ll take time today to join our defense of the common good.

CLICK HERE TO SUBSCRIBE!

In the meantime, please enjoy this original work of art by the Editorial Board‘s illustrator, secretary, dog-walker and all around good kid. She calls it “The Dancing Pickles.” It’s available for purchase. THANKS! –JS

Here’s what subscribers have been reading!

Noah Berlatsky offers an innovative approach to police reform I’ve never heard of before — lead abatement. Lead is tied to impulsive human behavior. Some expects say it might explain why crime was high until the 1990s, then fell dramatically after lead gas was banned. Abate lead to reduce crime to defund police? Well, maybe, Noah says.

Trent R. Nelson writes about the concept of American exceptionalism. Most people think it’s good. But it’s not. “While conservative ‘intellectuals’ still believe educating Americans as though they are intrinsically or uniquely special relative to others might bind and keep the society bound more tightly together, they are woefully incorrect.”

Rod Graham writes about the real CRT in public schools. It’s not “critical race theory.” It’s culturally responsive teaching. “Instead of describing these well-meaning attempts by sincere, hard-working scholars and educators as yet another manifestation of ‘wokism,’ we can look at school activities as efforts to deal with the realities of racial and cultural diversity in American school systems.”

Lindsay Beyerstein writes about the latest regarding John Eastman. He’s the mastermind behind the former president’s “inside game and outside game” on January 6. “The inside game was to steal the election procedurally. The outside game was to gather a mob to terrorize officials into going along with it. Eastman was a conceptual architect of both the paper coup attempt and of the plan for the political repression that Trumpists expected to follow in the wake of the theft.”

---