Mary McNamara: Jan. 6 is not a political Rorschach test. It is a flashbulb memory, fixed and irrevocable
Like many, I will remember forever where I was when the Challenger exploded, when Timothy McVeigh bombed the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building, when the L.A. riots began, when the Twin Towers fell and when Adam Lanza killed 20 second-graders and six teachers at Sandy Hook Elementary.
And now, like many, I will remember forever where I was the day then-President Donald Trump incited a mob of armed supporters who then stormed the United States Capitol for the purpose of overturning the fair and democratic election of President Joe Biden. Although Jan. 6, 2021 did not result in a massive loss of life, the threat it posed to our government, physical and spiritual, made it a flashbulb memory just as vivid.
“Flashbulb memories” are what we call these crystal-clear recollections of autobiographical details surrounding cataclysmic events. Though the term feels outdated in this digital age, there is no video equivalent of the searing flash and crackling pop
