On this 9/11, I would like to hear about a national holiday for first responders—all first responders. Don't get me wrong: 9/11/2001 was a deep loss for the nation, specifically those with direct ties to victims or folks who lived in the targeted cities. But it's not like we haven't found ways to honor those who lost their lives. In the last 16 years, we have built buildings and monuments, created documentaries and published investigative reports, books, and even big-budget blockbuster movies about 9/11.

But all these years later, September 11 has become an excuse to wage endless war, to bomb with impunity, to torture prisoners, to submit to surveillance, to curtail freedoms, to victimize individuals and groups based on nationality or skin color. It's used as a bludgeon by politicians and charlatans to instill fear and keep us docile and compliant in the face of bad legislation.

We outwardly revere those who died and claim to support those who responded to our cries for help, but we also spent more than a decade deciding whether to give those same heroes healthcare benefits. The total number of people who have died due to chronic illnesses related to the aftermath of 9/11 is fast approaching the number who died on the actual day of the attacks. And let's not forget that we've lost about 7000 servicemen and women in the War On Terror(™), not to mention the over 50,000 wounded and the multitudes more civilians who died in American miltary strikes.

Meanwhile, we continue to ignore the national tragedy of gun violence. There are 33,000 annual gun deaths in the U.S., two-thirds of which are suicides. Even the mass killing of a school full of 6- and 7-year-olds wasn't enough for us to take meaningful legislative action against guns. Then there's the lack of access to healthcare in this nation, which kills an estimated 20,000 to 45,000 annually.

And yet, we hear about 9/11 ad nauseam each year. We pass around photos of metal beams twisted into crosses, or flags superimposed next to the Twin Towers, or slideshows of anguished firefighters set to sad music. We tell stories about where we were when we heard. We re-air specials showing people jumping from buildings. We listen to politicians give impassioned speeches about what it means to be an American... but for what, exactly?

Has reopening this wound every September helped us as a nation? Have we learned anything from the annual barrage of patriotic imagery? Have our millions of social media shares led to better thinking? Better ideas? Better laws? Better people? I, for one, don't think we are any better for it. If anything, 9/11 has become one more distraction from current issues. We replay this one sad morning over and over, consoling ourselves for the loss of 3000 innocents, while ignoring the continued suffering that surrounds us. We remind ourselves to keep fearing freedom-hating boogeymen, all the while, forgetting about imminent domestic dangers to life and liberty: gun violence, climate change, healthcare, homelessness, suicide, etc.

Every September 11, for 16 years now, we remind ourselves to Never Forget. To me, it seems like we are just Never Forgetting to congratulate ourselves for our patriotism. We're so busy remembering how great is America, so enamored with waving stars and bars, that we seem to forget to save lives today.

Why don't we pick specific days to focus on other problems that cause us to lose so many American lives? Let's use those days to amplify awareness of these other tragic issues. For example, if one day each year we took time to read aloud the 30,000 names of people killed by guns each year—maybe from the steps of the Capitol Building—and broadcast it nationwide, perhaps we would finally do something about it.

Travis Rogers is an IT specialist in Bothell.