It’s easy to distance oneself from our elected officials, even those who share our interests.  There’s such a great distance between us, and at least I am usually in my cold political brain when I think about them.  In fact, I’ve become so used to being lied to that I have become somewhat jaundiced about everyone and everything.

So an article in the Morning New York Times on Sunday belatedly touched an empathic part of me when  I read Ian Prasad Philbrick’s story “In the Room.”  He interviewed Times colleague and reporter Emily Cochrane  who was trapped in the upper gallery of the House chamber during the January 6 attack.  She recalled the period when “all of a sudden the people in front of me started moving again, climbing over chairs and bannisters so I did the same.”

The article describes those who sit in the back of the chamber during testimony and how many  who experienced the Januay 6 attack have a mutual support network.  For more insight, see the article: