Every year, on or about this time of year, someone always asks me, “Where were you when the towers went down?”. My response is always the same. I was asleep. I lived in Colorado in 2001 and I had been up late the night (morning?) before the attack.

When I woke up, I came downstairs, walked through the living room, grabbed the remote to turn on the television, and selected a news channel on my way to the kitchen to press the power button on the coffee maker. As I stood there waiting for enough coffee to drip to pour at least one cup, I heard some people talking on the TV. At first I thought I had accidentally placed the TV on some movie channel until I came around the corner from the kitchen and stopped to see what was being discussed. That’s how I discovered, that some 2 or 3 hours before, planes had been purposefully crashed into the World Trade Center towers. And that’s all I remember about that day, and other than colleagues and friends talking about it over the next month (maybe), most people have moved on from that time.

That may sound crass, but let’s look at it realistically: Do we celebrate any other day like this one? Sure, we have Memorial Day at the end of each May, but does that take over media like today? Not even close. During World War II, my father was at the battle of Okinawa, 12,520 Americans (Army, Navy, Marines) were killed, and 41,655 in total were wounded. That was one battle. Remember Vietnam? Imagine the outrage of the American people had they known, offocially, how many died to take that one island in the Pacific.

But I digress. We barely acknowledge any conflict anymore. right now, there’s outrage over 18 service members killed during this Iran conflict. Eighteen. I am very sorry for all of those lost and their families but it doesn’t compare to what sacrifices have been made in the past.

We should never forget 9/11. But we should also never forget, or minimize the sacrifices made before or since.