Opinion : 9/11: A day we do not remember as well as we think

One of the top five stories in the news today starts with the name "Miley" in the headlines.

The women of "The View" planned to discuss pop culture.

Yeah, America remembers 9/11 -- kind of. 

We remember the images. We remember the NYC firefighters and police officers who died trying to evacuate the towers. 

But as a general rule, we have forgotten the lessons we swore on 9/12/2001 that we had learned. Lessons about being united as Americans. Lessons about taking care of each other and paying attention to the world around us. 

One one hand, it's a good sign that we can afford to focus on some singer's antics. It means that the people who wanted to destroy us with their attacks a dozen years ago failed in that goal. It means that for most of America, 9/11 had little impact on our daily life.

Military families, of course, have felt the impact of 9/11 and the wars it inspired.

Those who travel are too familiar with the security measures now in place at airports. 

But for too many of us, life went on as usual after 9/11. For the first several years of the 21st Century, murders increased in New York City -- where we hoped the attack would most inspire a sense of unity. Instead, more people in the Big Apple killed each other than before Sept. 11, 2001. 

Five years after the attack, 36 people who responded to a media poll said that their vote on "American Idol" was more significant than their vote for President. 

We were not paying attention, in the fall of 2001, when the al-qaeda members who bombed our African embassies were scheduled to be sentenced -- in Manhattan -- on Sept. 19. We did not pay attention to the trial of those men, where evidence concerning that group's plans to attack America and hijack planes was a topic of much discussion. 

Nope. Our media -- because they knew we would not pay attention -- spent more time covering the trial of the rapper then known as"Puff Daddy." That trial took place in the very same courthouse at the very same time as the al-qaeda trial

We thought, on 9/11, that we would change.

We didn't really. Oh, of course there are exceptions. But for the most part, life goes on for most of us as it did before that awful day. 

And we go on paying too little attention to the things that matter most to our nation, and our future.