Friend,

One year ago, I was huddled in the House of Representatives behind Capitol Police officers with their weapons drawn as shouts and mayhem in the halls of the Capitol grew louder, gunshots rang out, and the door to the chamber began to crumble.

I know you didn’t have to be there to know what it was like -- the images from that day are seared in our collective conscience and serve as a reminder to us all that democracy is both precious and vulnerable.

Photo taken by Jim Himes, January 6, 2021

It is imperative, while bad actors continue to bludgeon our capacity for moral discernment and delegitimize our institutions in an attempt to undermine the values we hold dear, that we work to strengthen and protect American democracy and resist these efforts wherever they are made.

Our democracy was saved that day by Capitol Police and by the courts, elected officials in battleground states who know the difference between integrity and immorality, and by millions of Americans who saw the outlines of a coup through the fog of lies.

Make no mistake: the Big Lies are still out there, and our democracy is still at risk.

We must be more vigilant about the media we consume, more aware of the divisiveness in our periphery, and we must uphold the integrity of our institutions to best protect our country and our future.

- Jim