Remembering 9/11

The latest national survey by the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press, conducted Aug. 9-13 among 1,506 adults, finds that nearly every American (95%) can still recall exactly where they were or what they were doing when they first heard the news of the Sept. 11 attacks, and roughly half (51%) say that the attacks changed life in America in a major way. On a personal level, 22% report that their own lives have changed in a major way because of the events of Sept 11, up slightly from 16% one year after the attacks occurred. In the view of nearly half of Americans (47%), the 9/11 attacks are about as serious as the 1941 Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, and another 35% say the Sept. 11 attacks were more serious than that event. Public concerns about another terrorist attack have neither increased nor decreased substantially in the years since the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. In October 2001, just over a quarter (28%) said they were very worried about another attack, a proportion that fell to 16% by the summer of 2002, and stands at 23% in the current survey. The current survey was largely conducted immediately after the Aug. 10 revelations that a terrorist plot against trans-Atlantic jet liners had been foiled. Read More