Are we too divided to remember?

Have we become too divided as a country to properly honor those lost to tragedy?

This question has crossed my mind multiple times in the last week, which was largely focused on recollecting the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on the United States. Saturday was the 20-year anniversary of the attacks.

I was glad to see many tributes and well-written, thoughtful notes in print, online and via social media commemorating and honoring the 2,977 lost, including 340 firefighters and 72 law enforcement officers.

Unfortunately, I also saw a bevy of political debate, vitriol and discussion that often skewed what the day and week should’ve focused on…the lives lost in the deadliest terrorist attack on American soil this country has ever seen.

Social media then took sides, as it often does, to debate politics over tragedy. Some used the opportunity to blast current or former presidents, while others lauded conspiracy theories.

In an unfortunately all-too-common occurrence these days, some of our current and former politicians gave their take. Like celebrities gathering to sing a horribly out-of-tune rendition of John Lennon’s “Imagine” to save us all from the COVID-19 pandemic in March 2020, the politicians gave their dramatic takes to push their own agendas and ideas while pivoting away from those who lost their lives.

2020 Democratic Florida Congressional candidate Pam Keith referenced the riot at the Capitol Building as Congress met to confirm Joe Biden’s presidential election victory via Twitter. She boldly proclaimed that “On Jan. 6, 2021, 9/11/2001 ceased being the worst thing that happened to America in my lifetime.”

According to Keith, folks having to make the choice to burn to death or jump out of the Twin Towers is worse than the admittedly horrible events of Jan. 6. The tweet seemed, at best, in poor taste. At worst, it was a disrespectful attempt to dumb down the tragedies of thousands of lives lost 20 years ago.

But the political jockeying wasn’t limited to the left. Former presidents George W. Bush and Donald Trump gave their own speeches. Both speeches started well, honoring those who were lost, before they both gave their political insertions. Bush also referenced the Jan. 6 riot, while Trump opted to lambaste Biden’s administration for the chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan this month.

Don’t get me wrong. The Jan. 6 riot was a stain on this nation’s history, and those involved should be prosecuted. And our president and his administration deserve criticism and need to answer to the American and Afghan people for how Afghanistan has been bungled.

But that debate, which we have been subjected to for days, weeks, months and years at a time, should wait as we seek to honor lives—human lives!—that were lost in tragedy.

Tragedies turning into political debates is nothing new to America, lamentably.

Mass shootings at Columbine High School, Parkland High School and Sandy Hook Elementary School sparked heated arguments about appropriate gun control versus Second Amendment rights to bear arms.

Wildfires on the West Coast in 2017, 2020 and 2021 turned into a debate about climate change versus forest management.

Over 600,000 people dying of a new virus, COVID-19, turned into a debate about public health versus government control.

Often, people would rather be right and confirmed in their own opinions than take a moment to be silent and remember the lives we’ve lost.

Social media doesn’t help this. Our ability to hide behind a screen and insult others who disagree with us, no matter the occasion, has contributed to our country becoming more and more divided.

Tragedies used to unite the country. Look at how we came together after 9/11, before the controversies in the Middle East began. Now, they seemingly only tear us further apart. Politicians aren’t helping. Neither is social media.

The ones who can turn the tide are us, the citizens. We can try and take a minute when we remember tragedies to honor those we lost. We can forget about trying to prove that our politics are correct and opposing opinions are all idiotic. We can save the political talk for a more appropriate time, rather than using it to detract from remembering the fallen.

Lost lives matter more than political agendas.

Let us pray it doesn’t take another historic tragedy like 9/11 to truly remind us of that.