This Thursday at 8 p.m., Americans will be able to watch a special committee of the U.S. House of Representatives investigating the details of the Jan. 6, 2021 riot at the Capitol. 

Jim Douglas, former governor of Vermont and Middlebury College graduate, class of 1972, has just given us a meaningful opportunity for learning and growth. Douglas, who served as governor for eight years starting in 2002, announced last week he will skip his 50th college reunion this year because of the “woke’’ culture at the college.

For the moment, let’s shift our focus away from the shootings, the needless death, the war, the oligarchs, climate change and the profound social-emotional disconnection wrought by the Internet.

Let’s instead talk about the positive change that’s coming.

In the great movie Casablanca, the corrupt police chief, played by the incandescent Claude Rains, is “shocked’’ to discover that gambling is going on in the night club run by Humphrey Bogart’s Rick Blaine. After uttering that memorable line, Rains collects his winnings from his evening spent gambling.