Hold Jan. 6 perpetrators accountable. Their actions led to death of my friend. | Opinion

My best friend Howard "Howie" Liebengood and I were inseparable in our early years. We spent seemingly endless days puddle-stomping, rock-turning, going to school, playing house, and spending the night in our Nashville homes.

When we slept over at his house, we’d leave our shoes at the end of the bed some nights, and there would be Fruit Stripe gum in them when we woke up. I remember the sad day when his family moved to Washington, D.C.

His father, who worked with the late Tennessee U.S. Sen. Howard Baker, had been appointed Sergeant-at-Arms for the U.S. Senate.

Howie was my first friend, and though our lives took different paths after they moved, we checked back in from time to time.

He was racing cars professionally. I was playing in a band. He was moving back to D.C. I was in business school. He was getting married. I was starting my family. His parents passed away.

I knew he married a doctor, that he was on the Capitol Police Force, and that he was happy there. Howie was all-American goodness: a sweet, kind, brave, strong guy. The protagonists in astronaut movies remind me of him.

More: Howard Baker and Mike Pence spoke truth to power and defended the Constitution | Lyons

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Capitol police protected democracy

As the horrific scenes of Jan. 6 spread across the world, I couldn’t stop thinking about Howie. Unlike several of his colleagues, I knew that he’d survived the attack on the Capitol. He was too busy to talk. Later, I learned that Howie had worked three straight, 24-hour shifts with no sleep.

As the events of that day have been pieced back together and released to the public, I still pause frames trying to find him. I have no idea what he was thinking.

But I imagine he was traumatized, like many of us, to see fellow Americans behaving like rabid animals, desecrating the sacred halls of the seat of American democracy with the intention of overthrowing the will of the people.

I imagine he felt uniquely responsible for being unable to stop what happened; still his father’s son, charged to protect duly elected members as they fulfilled their obligations to our democratic republic.

More: My Capitol officer husband died by suicide. His death deserves 'line of duty' designation

I grieve over Howie's painful demise

On January 10, 2021, I was at my son’s soccer game in Franklin, Tennessee when my mom called. “Heidi, this Capitol police officer who died in D.C. yesterday, it isn’t Howie, is it?”

Surely not, I thought. But it was. Howie, a man who was deeply devoted to upholding the U.S. Constitution and the laws of our country, took his own life.

It seems impossible to separate his suicide from the crimes of January 6 perpetrated by MAGA extremists attempting to block the peaceful transfer of power.

I grieve over his sudden and painful demise.

The creeping normality of the aberrant behavior that led to the treasonous events of Jan. 6, 2021, continues. Almost every day, we experience flagrant violations (some illegal, some only morally reprehensible) of the values we’ve adopted in our faith, literature, art, and politics. Kindergarten-certified axioms like be kind, respect one another, take care of others, work hard, don’t complain seem all but abandoned.

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Hatred rears its head at Juneteenth celebration

Recently, I attended a Juneteenth celebration in Franklin, where we encountered a group of a dozen armed white men wearing white shirts and skull masks, carrying signs with white nationalist messages.

All for the purpose of antagonizing people, of all backgrounds, who were there to celebrate the end of slavery.

This is the same ignorance and hatred my friend Howie confronted at the Capitol.

But this is not the America that I choose and it’s not the country Howie was protecting.

We must hold to account the bully who incited this criminal conspiracy and his allies who engineered the attack on our democracy. Our nation remains in peril as long as politicians are willing to pledge their fealty to an autocrat rather than respecting the will of voters.

More: Juneteenth essays invite citizens to reflect upon complicated American history | Editorial

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We must enforce basic law and order

I am running for Congress in Tennessee’s Fifth Congressional District, and I bet all nine of the Republicans in this race would parrot the lie that Joe Biden lost the 2020 election.

I bet that they would all agree to overturn the 2024 election for their leader because every one of them is sadly desperate for Trump’s approval. There’s no point in even discussing policy for those running as MAGA Republicans.

Their election is only valuable inasmuch as it adds ballast to an extreme, monolithic agenda.

We, as a nation, must be willing to uphold our Constitution and enforce basic law and order to strengthen the foundation of our ineffable cultural identity or we risk further bifurcation into very different visions: one that’s committed to inclusion, fair play and equality. And another that’s dedicated to giving itself unchecked power over our lives.

We cannot let the autocrat’s party take control this November. Vote.

Heidi Campbell is a Democratic state senator representing parts of Davidson County in the Tennessee General Assembly. She is the former mayor of Oak Hill and a 2022 candidate for Congress.

This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Jan. 6 attack led to my friend's death. Hold perpetrators accountable.