On Saturday I attended the funeral service, with military honors, for Sgt. Richard Essex of the United States Army. He was killed in action in Afghanistan on August 16, 2012. Richard was a Kelseyville local, graduating from local schools and enjoying many days with his family and friends here in Lake County.

I didn’t know him, and can’t recall ever meeting him, but perhaps I did. But together with his family and close friends, I and about 1,000 other people attended his funeral. You may ask why so many people, who probably never met him, were there. I have a question in response: Why weren’t there even more?

During World War II, our nation came together because we had initially not wanted to be involved in the “European” conflict, and tried, at least publicly, to maintain a distance from the fighting. That changed with Pearl Harbor, when we were directly attacked.

That event, coming some 12 years after the Wall Street crash that ushered in the Great Depression, may have pulled us out of even greater economic disaster. Husbands, fathers, brothers and sons signed up in droves to go and fight, in Europe, the Pacific, even North Africa and Asia.

Here at home, we honored them and helped the effort by rationing gasoline, rubber, nylon and more to help the “war effort.” We had meatless Mondays, and other special days when our going without for a day meant our fighting men (and women) would have a bit more.

If we couldn’t get gas on the day we wanted it, we waited until our ration letter came up and bought just enough to get us through until we could buy again. We went without, so they would have fuel for trucks, tanks, planes and supplies to fight the war and come home safe.

We repeated those actions during the Korean conflict (not a war, as it was never declared; it was a United Nations intervention). But still men and women were in harm’s way overseas, and they deserved our support and sacrifice.

But starting with the Vietnam conflict, and continuing through Operation Desert Storm, Iraqi Freedom and countless other combined operations and battles in the Middle East and elsewhere, we now fight our wars by proxy.

Just as we complain about American jobs going to other countries, we have outsourced our wars.

Young men and women from our communities still fight and die, but we are detached, unless it is one we personally know. Otherwise, we have made no sacrifice to support him or her, and every night the overwhelming majority of Americans go to bed without a thought about any soldier, representing our country, in battle somewhere on foreign soil.

We are, as a nation, generally complacent. We complain about the high cost of gasoline when we pull our fuel-guzzling SUVs into the service station.

We worry about the cost of education for our sons and daughters, but still send them to the best schools we can afford, and possibly the best colleges on earth.

We want the taxes and fees we must pay reduced, but always want the cop there when we need him or her, the Post Office to be open when it’s convenient for us, and the DMV to make the lines shorter.

We want cheaper prescriptions, and less expensive medical care, but run to the emergency room when have a cough or upset stomach in the middle of the night.

We want to be rugged individuals who don’t need the government telling us what to do, while depending on zoning laws to keep our neighbors from building their fences too high, or relying on the public utility commission to make the power company provide light in the dark.

I didn’t know Richard Essex. Had I met him, I may have liked him, or not. But he, and countless others are fighting, and sometimes dying because our country said they should. We, collectively, made that decision.

You may say, “I didn’t send him off to war, and I didn’t want him to get hurt.” Did you tell your senator or congressional representative that? Of course not. You didn’t even pick up the phone or send an e-mail. You let someone else make that decision for you. You outsourced that decision.

And just like that decision, you’ll let someone else make the other decisions that directly affect your life, and complain that it wasn’t your fault later.

This of course doesn’t apply to everyone. There are many in our community who are involved with their families and friends and those in the military and those in politic and those who represent us both locally and nationally. Those folks are interested, informed and aware of issues and decisions and consequences. Thank you if you are one of them.

If you are not, why not? Is life just too busy to read a paper, watch an unbiased news report or attend a town-hall meeting about an issue that affects you?

That’s OK, we’ll go for you. Afterwards, we’ll make the decisions for you too. You stay at home and watch “America’s Got Talent” while the real talent is out there fighting our wars, protecting our peace and serving our nation.

They may sacrifice everything they ever had to serve our country, and you can sacrifice being an active and informed citizen. After they render their service, you can say it wasn’t your idea they should do so.

So why weren’t there 3,000 or 4,000 or 5,000 people at Sgt. Essex funeral Saturday? Some were too busy enjoying the freedom and choices that his sacrifice, and the thousands of others who have fallen before him, provided.

Someone said we owe a debt to Sgt. Essex, and his comrades in arms, that can never be repaid. Many know that; many do not.

Be one that knows, and whether you were there Saturday or not, when you go to bed tonight, take a moment to say “Thank you.” It may be the only sacrifice you’re ever called upon to make.

Doug Rhoades lives in Kelseyville, Calif.