Five years ago the images that consumed the nation’s collective attention were catastrophic.

Flames shot into the sky. Thick, black smoke billowed into the heavens.

Those images soon turned to underwater footage showing crude oil literally spewing deep into the Gulf of Mexico.

Later the images were of the mess — oil globs on beaches, sea birds struggling to move beneath a thick layer of oily muck and workers attempting to clean it all up.

The catastrophe that occurred on BP’s Deepwater Horizon drilling platform has drawn much attention from environmentalists and regulators.

Debates have raged over the impact of the estimated 134 million gallons that spewed from the broken well before it could be stopped.

Lawsuits and finger pointing have continued since the flames first appeared.

But often lost in the equation is something that should make us ashamed.

Yes, the amount of oil that affected the birds, fish and other wildlife is horrendous.

That human errors in judgment appear to have played a huge part in what occurred is equally unthinkable.

But lost in all of that is something very real and something that no amount of money or efforts in cleaning up can return — the loss of human life.

Eleven men lost their lives that day, including a few from our own corner of the world.

Those 11 men — fathers, sons and husbands — have been in many ways eclipsed by the enormity of the environmental disaster.

Shame on all of us for allowing our focus to ever leave the real victims, the families.