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CNN TONIGHT
America Under Attack: Rural Communities Affected
Aired September 13, 2001 - 23:38 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
AARON BROWN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Finally, from us this evening, over the last couple of days we have seen, all of us, the stunned reaction of people in New York and in Washington, many of whom have spoken about how helpless they feel in the face of this horrible tragedy.
Feelings are much the same in small town America tonight, as CNN's Candy Crowley reporters.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
CANDY CROWLEY, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Berryville, Virginia, is an hour's drive from the Pentagon, far enough away not to have heard terrorism's roar, close enough to feel its pain.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I spent all day yesterday working the fire.
QUESTION: It felt pretty terrible?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, it's about as unbelievable as -- the TV doesn't do it any justice. It's horrible.
CROWLEY: After 48 hours on call, D.C. firefighter came home to Berryville, and bought a couple of flags.
I believe in my country, I believe in everything we're about. And the more I support it and the more everybody else support it, and -- it's just keeping the faith.
CROWLEY: Berryville is the kind of place where the barber is a minister, and the mayor and his mother run the flower shop. The kind of place where putting up flags was second nature, no meetings, no proposals, it just kind of happened.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They came out late on Tuesday, and just sort of a spontaneous thing from the town office. We decided that we have these flags that we obviously put up for Memorial Day and Labor Day and 4th of July and special occasions like that, and we just thought this was a good time to put them out, just to show some support.
CROWLEY: They are everywhere now. They hang from the mirrors of Powder's barber's shop.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Well, we all love our country, and we all take pride in the country. It's hard to tell you what patriotism is, it's got to be inside.
CROWLEY: They decorate every table inside Jane's Lunch, a third- generation diner.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I feel helpless here in Berryville. What can I do? I can go to New York and help those people. I can give blood. That's -- you know, that's the extent of what I can do.
CROWLEY: Population 3,000, Berryville is small town America. Berryville is Mayberry, only instead of Sheriff Andy Taylor, you find Officer Anthony Roper (ph).
ANTHONY ROPER, OFFICER, BERRYVILLE: It's kind of funny, I've driven around the last couple of days and an older gentleman -- a retired military gentleman's been saluting me and then, you know, really coming up and asking, and appreciating us. And, I guess, just as a whole, you know, seeing how the country's reacted to all this -- the people being very patriotic.
CROWLEY: But, there is more than patriotism here, there is defiance. Just after Pearl Harbor, a Japanese admiral said, "I fear all we have done is to have awakened a sleeping giant and fill him with a terrible resolve."
Listen now to some of the voices of Berryville.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm not Bush, but if I was I'd be relocating the B-52's to Guam. We got to find out who did it.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm sure that President Bush is going to take of business.
CROWLEY: Do you want him to?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hell, yes. Everybody's pissed, ain't they? Sure.
CROWLEY: They usually sell 10 copies of the "New York Times" at the Berryville newsstand -- Wednesday morning they sold 80, along with every other paper they had. They talk of little else over latte and chocolate-chip cookies.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: First is I can't believe it, and now there's such anger and we better blast the hell out of somebody. Everybody's ready to flatten someone for having done this.
CROWLEY: The sleeping giant stirs again now in a small town. Candy Crowley, CNN, Berryville, Virginia.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
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