By the time this column is posted online late Saturday afternoon, Sept. 11, 2021, you will be on about the 18th green, a sign it is nearly safe to resume. If you are reading this in Sunday's paper and Sept. 11, 2021, has passed, here is the all clear:

We can all go back to hating each other again.

Oh, we did the dance the last few days, didn't we? All the perfunctory, Sept. 11 do-si-dos. All the reminders to "never forget." We were patriotic and pensive again for the requisite time. Or was it just showtime?

Now we can return to the big bunch of frauds we really are. Back to our political and ideological combat zones. Back to the feedback loops and echo chambers. Back to the self-righteous rage.

Never forget. Ha. There's a knee slapper. We forgot long ago. We forgot how to talk to each other. We forgot that we could disagree and still be friends. We forgot our unity in the face of abject tragedy. We forgot our ability to look past political allegiances. Remember how we all cheered President Bush when he threw out the first pitch at Yankee Stadium before the World Series began in 2001? He wasn't a Republican that night. He was our president.

That's why the 20th anniversary remembrances of the deadliest terrorist attack on U.S. soil ring as a big bunch of baloney. I can't imagine a worse way to honor the fallen than to hate each other on Sept. 10, fake it on Sept. 11 and then business as usual Sept. 12.

It is not surprising that most of this country continues to miss the point about Sept. 11's tentacles and significance. This is about more than remembering the fallen and telling stories about where we were on another day that lives in infamy. This is about remembering how Sept. 11 changed the way we felt about each other. It changed the way we treated each other. It changed the way we cared for each other.

Momentarily, it turns out. Because not even an enemy that used planes as projectiles in the middle of New York City could wrest us from lapsing into the apocryphal — yet sadly real — addition to the Bill of Rights: The right to be right about everything.

It's kind of like what Mussolini said once: "O con noi o contro di noi." It means "you're with us or against us."

Nice guy there to emulate.

The last few days were about nothing more than a good show. Who can express sadness with the most bombast on social media? Who can wax the most nostalgic? Who can tell the best story? This is not to dismiss the memories. We all grieve differently. But the momentousness of the Sept. 11 tragedy must stand for more than our personal whims. Sept. 11 had a chance to teach us a new way. Instead ...

"We live in a moment of profound distrust," journalist and author Ron Chernow wrote about a year ago in the Wall St. Journal. "Of deep suspicion of the 'other side.' What we believe is less and less a matter of hard evidence — or shared national values — and more and more a byproduct of our increasingly rigid political allegiances."

It has been suggested that going to church doesn't make you a Christian any more than standing in a garage makes you a car. Same concept here. It's about how we act in our day to day lives that determines who we really are. Not how we pose in public. Posting flags on social media with slogans is empty calories. And an insult to all the men and women who lost their lives trying to save lives. I doubt they cared who was a snowflake and who was a wingnut with debris falling on them.

Apologies to those of you still reading this expecting something about sports. We resume regularly scheduled programming this week.

Gentle reminder, though, about sports and their metaphorical richness. No matter the participants or the people watching, we all get this sense of togetherness watching our teams play. The same togetherness we had in the wake of tragedy 20 years ago. Don't be so careful to dismiss sports as the toy department. The games we play provide a foundation as to how we should strive. And be.

Remember this and write it down: We are only responsible for ourselves. We get to choose our behavior. Every day. We should have learned something from Sept. 11 the first time. Let's try not to be frauds in the wake of the 20th anniversary.

This is the opinion of Day sports columnist Mike DiMauro