When judging the nation's character, the media tend to gravitate toward its loudest voices, its most extreme measures, its deepest grudges. The result is a loss of all subtlety and nuance.

In the days and weeks following Aug. 26, when our nation lost 13 service members in a deadly terror attack in Afghanistan, something profound happened across the country that few in the national media have noticed: simple but meaningful tributes to honor those American lives lost.

At the Tattered Flag Brewery in this Dauphin County borough, just outside of Harrisburg, they set out 13 beers at the bar with an American flag in the center, marking the space "Reserved."

The Fossil Bar and Grill in Russell, Kansas, did something similar.

"We wouldn't have our freedoms without the sacrifices of the brave," said the owner, Nick Buehler. "Our community has many brave men and women who have served our country, 13 beers honor those 13 heroes, but it also honors our hometown heroes."