14 years ago, a bleary-eyed seven-year-old rolled out of bed at 7 a.m. Like he did before school every day, he got dressed and wandered down the hall to watch his favorite PBS cartoon, Arthur. That day, the television told a much different story.

There are few days that fundamentally alter the course of history. What I saw on the television instead of Arthur 14 years ago is one of the only such occasions in my lifetime. And yet, as the years go on, my generation, possibly as a function of our young age when the attacks happened, is prone to use the anniversary of 9/11 as a sound board for political debate instead of an occasion for remembrance. These debates cover the merits of war in Iraq and Afghanistan, the conduct of the United States in detaining foreign suspects at Guantanamo Bay, and the list goes on.

Today is not the day for those debates. If there is one thing to politicize and relentlessly support today, it is a permanent extension of the nearly-expired Congressional program that funds the healthcare for complications suffered by the many men and women who risked their lives as first responders on 9/11, so that others might live.

And yet, we politicize the day. From the daily briefing email of Red State, a widely-read conservative blog: “We have been at war ever since…Today, the left says if only George W. Bush had not invaded Iraq, ISIS would not exist.” This morning, Huffington Post ran an article reminding voters, “After 9/11, Bernie Sanders Voted Against Iraq. Hillary Clinton Calls Her Vote a ‘Mistake.’” Rudy Giuliani, who was mayor of New York City on 9/11, used his airtime on Morning Joe today to say, “The Islamic terrorist threat to America is greater today”

But only the New York Times editorial board got it right today in a short, succinct piece that urged Congress to permanently extend the health care and compensation programs that benefit the 9/11 first responders and their families. They wrote:

“More than 33,000 responders and volunteers have developed illnesses from their time at the 9/11 sites…3,700 of them…have developed cancers attributed to toxins that suffused ground zero…unless Congress renews the health care and compensation programs, patients will be deprived of fair treatment, while the 6,285 victims and their families awarded compensation for various illnesses could see their payments cut by an estimated 50 percent, according to program administrators.”

The permanent extension of the James Zadroga 9/11 Health and Compensation Reauthorization Act, part of which expires at the end of this month, is the only thing to politicize today. To talk about anything more is in wanton disregard of our responsibility to never forget the innocent lives lost, and the unthinkable sacrifice made by the men and women on 9/11 who were either killed or injured trying to save them. This responsibility also demands a relentless advocacy for the healthcare needs of the men and women in uniform who were killed or injured fighting in the wars that followed. Whether or not our leaders voted for those wars is a conversation for another day.

Almost 153 years ago, Lincoln reminded his war torn nation, “From these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion — that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain.”

The first responders deserve unrelenting devotion to their healthcare. What they don’t deserve is a question unexamined by the NYT’s succinct, powerful urge to Congress: why, instead of politicizing the first responder’s healthcare, is today an occasion for so many to politicize so much more?

As you scroll through Facebook and Twitter today, notice your conservative peers who channel the sense of immense tragedy and loss brought by 9/11 into supporting foreign wars, “never forgetting,” and taking revenge on those deemed responsible. Take equal notice of your friends on the left, who will criticize the Bush administration for the preemptive wars and prejudicial anti-Islamic culture that came into vogue in the days, months, and years following.

For folks at those particular standpoints, both arguments may seem reasonable, but don’t hesitate to remind them that their arguments should be saved for September 12.