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The U.S. House select committee probing the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the United States Capitol will take its investigation to prime time on Thursday, after having issued more than 100 subpoenas, after having conducted more than 1,000 interviews and after having collected more than 100,000 documents.
Regardless of one's political affiliation, opinions and loyalties being harbored, or conclusions already rooted for debate or argument, every American who loves this free country should deem it important -- indeed, vital -- to open oneself to the information that will be made public.
Anyone has the right to question that information, refer to much or all of it as outrageous, outright lies and further advance doubts about the validity of the panel itself or the picture painted of the attackers, but the fact is that the Capitol incident will remain a stain on this nation's historical record forever more.
On behalf of this nation's taxpayers, it also is important to reiterate that many millions of taxpayer dollars already have been spent to repair the Capitol damage and beef up security around and inside this seat of national existence.
And, presumably, many more millions of taxpayer dollars will continue to be expended, because of the concerns that the Jan. 6 riot has embedded in the country.
This is a country much different from what it was on May 17, 1973, when the U.S. Senate Watergate Committee opened hearings into the June 17, 1972, break-in at Democratic National Committee headquarters at the Watergate office complex in Washington, D.C.
The nation today is much more divided and politically polarized than it was back then.
Even with the negative attention and wounds that the prolonged Vietnam conflict was continuing to inflict at the time, most Americans recognized the importance of learning what happened in connection with Watergate and finding out who ultimately was responsible for what occurred.
The hearings were broadcast live on commercial television during the day and were replayed in some places at night.
More than 300 hours were broadcast overall, and 85% of U.S. households are believed to have watched portions of them, with those hearings still described today as having been a national political and cultural event.
With America 2022 being so polarized and so much more closed-minded from what it was about a half-century ago, with its citizens also being so much more suspicious and critical of government in general, there is justifiable concern on many fronts over how many people will refuse to watch the Capitol hearings, shutting themselves off from important information.
One history professor, though -- Matthew Delmont of Dartmouth College -- differs on that issue, as quoted by the Associated Press in an article on Monday, as follows:
"I think people will watch the Jan. 6 hearings, because they want to understand how our democracy reached this precipice. I don't know how many people will be willing to hear the evidence that will be presented, but I think it is important for the findings to be shared openly so people today and in the future can appreciate what happened."
Beyond merely following the hearings goings-on, people should be determined to seek understanding based on more than one information or news source.
Because of the seriousness of what happened on Jan. 6, 2021, more than a flimsy understanding of that day's events should be considered mandatory, not optional.