Two years ago tomorrow marks an anniversary America will hopefully never forget. It will lose its impact over time for sure. And, years from now, the devastation that greeted millions and murdered thousands Sept. 11, 2001 will likely just be another day on the calendar.

Kids will ask their parents and someday grandparents what really happened that day.

The stories of survivors and the nation’s response will be told. Heroic tales of firefighters, police officers and civilians giving everything they had to save their fellow Americans. The aftermath.The realization of the loss and tragedy of it all. The surge of pride that followed.

In time those too will fade.

It’s difficult to believe but it’s true. It already has, not with Sept. 11 but with countless other major events in United States history. Stories all too often die when those who witnessed them die.

This is both a good thing and a bad thing.

On one hand it shows what we already know, people move on. Life moves on. Sept. 12, 2001 it didn’t seem like it ever would. Like it ever could.

It did.

The nation rebounded from New York to North Kitsap and residents everywhere showed the resilience that has kept us on this planet for thousands of years.

On the downside, by forgetting and allowing time to heal our wounds, we lessen the honor so richly deserved by those who died trying to save others that day. It is a trend that shows no signs of stopping. World War I is virtually forgotten save history books and shows. World War II will take the same route as our coveted veterans succumb to old age.

From the Civil War and the draft riots to Vietnam, the assassination of JFK, Rosa Parks’ refusal and Watergate all the things that were defining moments in our nation’s history will eventually become just that — history.

They will no longer live on in the hearts and minds of Americans but in books and computers. It’s a sad statement but very true.

That’s the trouble with healing. Part of the process is working on the present and preparing for the future instead of dwelling on the past.

Even so, we must do our very best TO remember what Sept. 11 was all about — at least for our own life times. If we forget why we did what we did, we’re damned to repeat our mistakes. Damned to repeat history that we didn’t learn from.

As we prepare to mark the solemn occasion tomorrow, we should do so knowing that even though years down the road someone will pose the question, “What happened on Sept. 11, 2001?”

Just as surely as some already ask what happened Nov. 22, 1963. Or May 8, 1945… the list goes on and the further we get from a particular date, the more apt we are to trivialize its importance.

The duty of this generation is to ensure that the memory of Sept. 11 stays alive as long as possible. That the pride instilled in the days thereafter continues in some form or another.

That Ground Zero be kept a sacred place and not turned into shopping malls (which is currently under consideration) and that the commemorative Sept. 11 shopping sale never materializes — as it has with other important dates in our history.

We owe it to ourselves. We owe it to those who died.