President Joe Biden presented the nation’s second highest civilian award to 12 Americans involved in defending the Capitol during the insurrection on Jan. 6, 2021.
Biden presented the Presidential Citizens Medal during a White House ceremony on Friday marking the second anniversary of the assault on the Capitol.
Among those honored are seven members of law enforcement, as well as election workers and election officials. The Presidential Citizens Medal is awarded to those who “performed exemplary deeds of service for their country or their fellow citizens.”
A posthumous award was given to the family of Capitol Police Officer Brian Sicknick, who died after the attack. Also awarded was Officer Eugene Goodman, who was credited with directing rioters away from the Senate floor while lawmakers were evacuating the building.
Also honored were two other Capitol Police officers, Harry Dunn and Caroline Edwards; Capitol Police Sgt. Aquilino Gonell; Metropolitan Police Department Officer Daniel Hodges and a former officer, Michael Fanone.
Biden also recognized Michigan’s secretary of state, Jocelyn Benson and Rusty Bowers, a former Arizona House speaker, who resisted pressure to overturn the election results; and Ruby Freeman and her daughter Shaye Moss, election workers in Fulton County, Georgia, who were subjected to threats and harassment after ensuring votes in the county were properly tabulated.
Also honored was Al Schmidt, a former Philadelphia election official who faced public pressure by Trump to stop counting valid ballots. Gov-elect Josh Shapiro, a Democrat, has chosen Schmidt, a Republican, to be his administration’s secretary of state.
It is important to honor those who bravely defended American democracy. Some risked their lives, others risked their livelihoods. They safeguarded the will of the American voters in the 2020 presidential election.
It is also critical that we remember and more importantly hold accountable those who dishonored the nation on Jan. 6 with an assault on the Capitol by supporters of former President Donald Trump that interrupted the congressional certification of Biden’s victory.
Some of the individuals involved in the attack on the Capitol have already been charged and convicted. Others like Trump and some top aides have yet to be held accountable for their actions.
As we mark the second anniversary of the violent insurrection, some would like to move on and forget or ignore the assault on the nation’s Capitol. But to prevent another attack on our democracy from ever happening again, there must be accountability.
(Reprinted from the Philadelphia Tribune)
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