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CNN Newsnight Aaron Brown

America Remembers 9/11; Twin Beams of Light Memorialize the World Trade Center

Aired March 11, 2002 - 21:59   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 ANCHOR: Good evening, again. I'm Aaron Brown. We're back on the roof of the CNN bureau here in New York. Behind us, you can see the two spotlights that were lit tonight. Two lights that mark where the World Trade Center was and to mark the sixth anniversary of the tragedy, the terrorist act that brought them down.

Six months is not very long but it is long enough for the sharpness of the pain of September 11th to be replaced by a dull but constant ache of what happened and what was lost. Time, even six months, offers us perspective. We can see some things more clearly. But for good or ill, perhaps both, time makes it easier or possible even to forget the worst and move on.

This program tonight is not the program we generally do here. No whip tonight. No headlines. Not much news of day really. It is not about the big issues. Not about public policy or war plans. Not about polls and politics and popularity ratings. It is about people we've met. Lives that have been changed. Struggles that go on each day. It is about what time has changed and what it can't.

Over the next hour and we hope you will stay with us to the very end of it, which will be a reading by the Actress Mary Tyler Moore and it is about as powerful a piece as we have ever seen or aired but the hour is short on the big picture as we said and long on the little pieces that make the big picture come alive. The firemen in Brooklyn. You will laugh with them and cry with them. We'll take you to one of the poorest places in our country to make the point that no place, not one, was spared the tragedy of 9/11. It is not a maudlin trip we take tonight but it's not an easy ride either.

And begins with two people you will recognize though you won't know their names. Both were captured by still photographers in those first hours or so after the plane struck. Their images were frozen in time but their lives were not. There's Jon McGuire (ph) one of the men who helped carry out the body of Father Michael Judge, the fire department chaplain. John was at the head of the line. The one non- firefighter in the shot. The photographer here was Shannon Staple (ph) of the Routers (ph) News Agency. And then there's the woman known to many simply as the dust lady. She has a name, of course, Marcy Borders, an image caught by freelance photographer Stan Honda. A picture he sold to Newsweek Magazine and we begin with Marcy's story.

(BEGIN VIDEO TAPE)

MARCY BORDERS: It was like 8:40. And it was just the beginning of the day like right before my computer was turned on. You knew that something is going on because every other floor underneath you is trying to get on the stairwell at the same time. That's when it just caught me; the debris and it just like threw me on all fours and like buried me.

BROWN: You can't hear the chaos but it's there as is the panic. All of it wrapped in a nearly golden glow covered in smoke and soot. The photographer taken. Marcy Borders, 9/11 frozen in time.

She is 28 from Bayo (ph), New Jersey, the mother of a nine-year- old daughter, a former legal assistant for the Bank of America once headquartered on the 81st floor of the North Tower. After she escaped from the tower that morning there was a brief chance encounter with a photographer.

BORDERS: I mean, it wasn't like - it was one of the best images you would want to view out in the world, you know. It's not like, you know, just looking at it just shows like how much fear, like, you know.

BROWN: The fear since 9/11 has never left. Six months has changed nothing. Her refuge is her two-bedroom home. And across the water from Bayo (ph), a distant view lies lower Manhattan. Marcy Borders has not gone back to work nor has she returned even once to the city. She is a prisoner of September 11th.

BORDERS: I'm still on 9/11. I can't get it out of my head and I wish, oh, Lord I just wish I could just have a piece of mind - like, you know, like my brain is so packed, you know what I'm saying? I tell people; they're like what's wrong. I'm like I just got so much on my brain. Like you know, they don't understand that. It's not them or - and I know everybody has life situations. There's some people who wake up with no cure to their disease but at the same time I just have a lot of my brain and I have never had so much on my brain.

JOHN MCGUIRE (ph): It started like any other day for me. I left for work a little bit earlier than usual. I just remember it being a very beautiful day, probably one of the best days of the year. And I was thinking about what - you know, what can I do? I have this military experience. I have some first aid experience. Maybe I can go up there and possibly do something to try to help someone. I'm not married. I don't have kids and I basically said, I don't know if I could live with myself if I don't try to go do something.

The next thing I know I see the doors open, they're bringing a body out and they had some tables and chairs. And five men were trying to - you know struggling to try to pick up the chair and that turned out to be Father Judge (ph).

BROWN: This is John McGuire, a graduate of West Point and for the past two years an employee at Goldman Sachs, five blocks from the World Trade Center. While others were fleeing the burning towers, McGuire was rushing in. Twenty-eight years old, his moment, his decision captured on film just after the South Tower collapsed.

MCGUIRE: And, you know, I can just remember the ground being very difficult to walk on. At a couple of points, you know, Father Judge's body slumped forward so we had to stop, you know, and regroup and, you know, make sure that our grip was sufficient enough to carry him.

BROWN: Father Michael Judge, a fire department chaplain for nine years, died on the job. The photograph tells just a part of the story. For after aiding Michael Judge, McGuire went back to help to rescue, to do something, anything, his moment still.

MCGUIRE: I had been taught, you know, duty, honor, country, service, selfless service to your country, a life long of selfless service. It just doesn't end when you're out of uniform. I think having that experience I felt compelled to do what I did.

BROWN: Six months and some treatment for nightmares later, McGuire still commutes to his lower Manhattan office but as his New York bound ferry docks each morning and he looks out, the day, the fear, the death and the sorrow are relived again.

MCGUIRE: It's definitely a constant reminder. It was such a dominating fixture in the New York skyline and to have it gone, you sort of, I think it almost makes you lose your sense of where you are because it was such a beacon and such a building where you could look up for and you always knew sort of where you are in Manhattan.

(END VIDEO TAPE)

BROWN: Those are just two of the people you'll be meeting tonight. Others to come, among them, the men Engine Company 205 and Ladder 118, two teams of firefighters who lost eight brothers on September 11th. That's a little bit later.

Up next Ground Zero itself six months later. It has changed a lot since that horrible day six months ago. Some views you've never seen when Newsnight continues for the 11th of March.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BERNARD SHAW, CNN ANCHOR: That day started as most of my days start. I got up around nine o'clock, turned on CNN and realized what was happening with the first plane going in and then the second one. And I just sat there on the couch in the dining room. I was transfixed for about five or six hours and I have never cried as much as I cried that morning and that afternoon. I have never been angrier.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BROWN: We said at the beginning, we'll say it again, this is a program about people but for a few moments it's about a place and the place is Ground Zero. Thousands of tons of steel and debris have been removed from the site. Hundreds of bodies, however, still remain. And there are still places there, one along the north wall, another in the southeast corner where recovery teams expect or perhaps it is hope to find many more victims buried in the stairwells that have yet to be uncovered.

We were down in the pit yesterday, a place where only workers have been allowed to walk before. And then we flew over the site last Thursday. A trip that was both the same and very different from a flight we made the first Sunday after the attack. This trip to Ground Zero begins that Sunday morning back in September and the report we filed minutes after getting off a coast guard chopper.

(BEGIN VIDEO TAPE)

(voice-over): When you get in the air it unfolds in front of you. In fact as we came around the southern tip of the island and started to move in closer, it was almost a sense of awe. Awe at the audaciousness of the plan. Awe at the evil brilliance of the plan. Awe at the power that those two jet bombs, fully loaded wide body jets, their power to destroy.

Of course, it doesn't look anything like it did that day. The smoke and fire are gone, finally. Hundreds of tons of debris gone. That Sunday there was still hope of finding someone alive. I remember thinking as we flew over that day how could anyone survive in that. Now the hope is that a body will be found, maybe a few, something for the families. You can't see reference from the air and you can't miss it in the pit. And we walked the pit yesterday with FEMA Director Joe Allbaugh.

JOE ALLBAUGH, FEMA DIRECTOR: You don't have anybody screaming or yelling. People treat this place with respect. And I think everyday about those families whose still have more questions than they have answers. It bothers me. I feel like I ought to be able to give them answers. And we are working as hard as we can.

BROWN: And one of the most moving things I have ever seen in my life is how people here react every time they find another body. You could not ask for, if you are a family, you couldn't ask for people to do better by your loved one in that situation.

ALLBAUGH: These are American heroes.

BROWN: Do you ever find yourself seeing it as a construction site?

ALLBAUGH: Never.

BROWN: You never lose sight of what it was or what it is?

ALLBAUGH: We can't. It's impossible. And it gets me every time I come here.

UNIDENTIFIED: I fired a bunch of people when I first showed up. Treating it like it was just another deal, another tornado, another earthquake, another flood. It's not.

BROWN: No, it's not even close to another deal. Could still see the smoke coming up in October and November and early December. Is this - how long is that going to go?

UNIDENTIFIED: You're asking how long would it go, would it ever stop. The amazing thing, Aaron, we haven't lost any life down here. It's absolutely incredible. I've been down here when it's been so dangerous we have had people who have been cut, bruised. There are a lot of times when I'll be on the roof and I'll look down and expect to see the towers.

BROWN: It's like you never get used to it.

UNIDENTIFIED: Every time I fly in, everyone looks for the towers. They are not there. You just - you just can't believe it. It's hard for your mind's eye to get it's arms around.

BROWN: I think your brain wants it to be a nightmare. So you expect to see the towers. You expect somehow we'll wake up and we won't see this any more.

UNIDENTIFIED: Well in the early days, I felt like I visited hell and it was right here.

BROWN: I think you are probably right.

(END VIDEO TAPE)

So it all looks different and if this makes any sense, it all feels exactly the same. There is the same sense of audacity to plan such a tragedy, the same sense of evil brilliance that somehow pulled it off. The same sense of sorrow we felt that day of lives lost, of lives shattered. Those feelings are no different.

BROWN: We are grateful to the Coast Guard, to Chief Brandon Brewer (ph) in particular, for the helicopter tour. The men and women of the Coast Guard are very busy these days around here providing security to the port of New York, a very busy place. We owe them a lot and we're very appreciative they took some time out to give us a tour that we took the other day.

We are also appreciative to Joe Allbaugh and FEMA for their time yesterday and in that regard a quick note to pass along. The deadline to apply for federal emergency assistance has been extended to September 30th. It was supposed to expire today. FEMA can be reached at this 800 number, 1-800-462-9029. 1-800-462-9029. The reason it's been extended, 300 people a day, 300 are still showing up for help here in New York. Help with the rent. Help finding a place to live. Help with emotional problems. 68,000 people have been helped so far by FEMA. Many more clearly are waiting.

And that's the phone number. Coming up next on Newsnight, the survivors of a pair of fire units, Engine 205 and Ladder 118 and there are eight brothers who did not come home.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JIMMY SHEA, OLYMPIC GOLD MEDALIST: On September 11th I was training in Calgary, getting ready for the Olympics and I called my father and he said have you turned on the TV? And I said no. And he said both the towers in New York City have gone down and I just couldn't believe it. You know, five minutes later I was at the university where I train and they pulled all the TV sets out all over the place and you know, everybody was just watching in amazement. You know and they just - I was just - you know I knew people in New York and frantically trying to call people and, you know, just a very scary time. You know and it was an attack on my friends. Attack on me. It was an attack on my country.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BROWN: No anniversary there. Not Ground Zero tonight.

A remarkable thing on the Web site for the New York City Fire Department, it's a funeral and memorial calendar. So many deaths, so many services even six months later that you need a calendar just to keep track of them. And there was another funeral today. Richard Allen (ph) was the firefighter's name, on the job less than a year when September 11th happened. And for each one of those firemen who died, two families were shattered, the one at home and the other at the firehouse.

Over in Brooklyn the grief is still fresh as it was six months ago. There are eight empty helmets in the firehouse where the men of two companies, Engine Company 205 and Ladder 118 come to work each day. These guys are something. Their experiences are the experiences of thousands of their brothers that day. And there are willingness to talk to us, to be open and honest and to cry and to laugh with us was a blessing we will never forget.

(BEGIN VIDEO TAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED: I was waiting release that morning for detail from another firehouse and about quarter to nine one of the mechanics that was here to work on the rig, he knocked on the door and told us a plane hit the Trade Center. The engine got the run first. We got on the rig. Going over the bridge ...

UNIDENTIFIED: I came over the bridge. We saw hundreds of people covered with ash running towards us. They all were in the first collapse.

UNIDENTIFIED: Going over the bridge, the way everybody is running from is a pretty scary feeling. You'd be lying if you're not saying it was scary. You know because you don't know what you're going to.

UNIDENTIFIED: We got there and then it was just crazy. Everything was on fire. Cars were on fire. As we are walking there everything was destroyed, all the cars, the trucks. You see cars just like they were just thrown against the buildings.

UNIDENTIFIED: More than five minutes after we were there we found the Engine 205. I spoke to the chauffeur, Tom; he says they're all gone. I don't know where they are. At that moment is when we felt the ground rumble.

UNIDENTIFIED: We took off running in pairs of two's it turned out. I dove under a truck. They ran down the block. Two other guys ran to (UNINTELLIGIBLE) tunnel.

UNIDENTIFIED: Rumbling. Thundering. Steel bending. Whatever you want to call it. And it was like an avalanche. Like, picture an avalanche in black.

UNIDENTIFIED: It was just black. Black. I mean black like you've never seen.

UNIDENTIFIED: It was completely silent. There was no one around but us six guys it seemed like. And when we walk, you can see first footprints as you were walking in the ash.

UNIDENTIFIED: I seen the rig. I seen 118 and the windows were all blown out. It was parked facing the World Trade and I seen it and everything inside was burnt. It was like, I mean, I looked and I didn't see nobody in there. I was like all right, cool. They're not there. So I'm working, working, working, I'm like you know what, I realize it's a mess. When I run into them, I'll run into them. You know, I'm sure they're all right.

UNIDENTIFIED: Right after both towers came down, we were right on that pile within minutes.

UNIDENTIFIED: There were so many voids. I'm thinking there's got to be tons of people. And when you looked around it was already getting dark out. It was just dusk. And all you could see was flames in the distance all around, things burning. And I remember thinking this is what hell must look like.

UNIDENTIFIED: Now you're thinking about the reports that you heard. You know, 118 was in the building. Are they out? You know, maybe after that report they realized the severity and got out.

UNIDENTIFIED: Then I seen couple of guys. I was like hey, where is everybody. And they're like, oh, reports are that we lost a truck and the engine's all right. What do you mean lost a truck - can't find them? Like no, no. They're missing. Missing where?

UNIDENTIFIED: They were getting people out of the Marriott. There was an elevator mechanic who works in the Marriott Hotel. He worked with the guys from 118.

UNIDENTIFIED: I met with the 118 group because these guys were like the Rocky Balboa's (ph). They go into something that's all against them and they don't care. They knew the building was coming down. I didn't. I thought it was part of the plane. And just using their bodies as barricades, not allowing people to go out into the falling structure, out to West Street, I turned around, they pushed me back in the building. I turned around and I saw them one minute and then they were gone.

BROWN: Do you think people see you differently?

UNIDENTIFIED: Without a doubt.

BROWN: Are you different? Has this changed you?

UNIDENTIFIED: As a person?

BROWN: Hmm mm.

UNIDENTIFIED: Definitely.

BROWN: How?

UNIDENTIFIED: It feels like a piece of me has been removed. Like I say we laugh and all that stuff but the laughter is very short lived, I think. You laugh and then all of a sudden you start thinking about how many guys that you knew that were there. And just something that's different inside me. I don't know. I don't think it's going to come out. Like I'm not depressed. I'm not - it's just something is different.

UNIDENTIFIED: I think what's different is that you reflect back to it more often than you did before. Before you play with your kids and you just, that would be the only thing you did. Now in the middle of the playing with your kids you might have a thought. Might come to one of their kids. It might be, oh, I wonder how that guy is doing now or that family so.

BROWN: You can't get away from it.

UNIDENTIFIED: Oh, no. I don't know if I want to get away from it yet but no you can't get away from it.

BROWN: Are you sick of talking about it?

UNIDENTIFIED: Does get to the point where it's a little bit repetitive but we are not sick of talking about it.

UNIDENTIFIED: Most of the time you talk about the guys, all brothers. Most of the time the conversation is talking about them. You may forget about a real funny story that happened 10 years ago, you know, eight years ago in my case, some of these guys 20 years ago and you'll forget about that in your everyday business and you hear a funny story like that and, you know, it makes you feel good for the moment.

UNIDENTIFIED: We also talk about their families, their wives, their mothers, their kids.

BROWN: Do you go visit?

UNIDENTIFIED: Hell, yeah. Still. BROWN: They OK?

UNIDENTIFIED: Some were bad in the beginning, got better. Some were strong in the beginning and got a little worse.

BROWN: Those of you with kids, are your kids more fearful?

UNIDENTIFIED: Yes. Mine are. In the beginning definitely, although - actually I'd say for a lot of the guys here because a lot of guys spent a lot of time away from their families in the first month or two or three. Kids saying like where's daddy. So I had to explain to my kids that some of the guys, kids that they know don't have a father any more.

BROWN: And how does a seven-year-old process the fact that daddy's job might claim his life?

UNIDENTIFIED: They tell me to stay home all the time. Don't go.

BROWN: And you say?

UNIDENTIFIED: I have to go.

BROWN: Because?

UNIDENTIFIED: I have to pay the bills. That's my excuse any way.

BROWN: Apologize. I assume you've been asked this a lot. Does it seem like six months?

UNIDENTIFIED: One day.

BROWN: Really, one day?

UNIDENTIFIED: One day for me. To me it seems it's been a long day but it's one day. I mean it doesn't seem like it happened six months ago. To me, it's yesterday.

BROWN: It seems like yesterday those guys were sitting here.

UNIDENTIFIED: It doesn't seem like six months ago, I can tell you that. I mean, I think about it today. I try - you know, I'm not going to say I try to put it out of my mind, I just try to go about my normal routine in life and somehow it's something, something triggers something that pops into your head about some one of our guys or somebody else I might know from the Trade Center.

BROWN: Do you look forward to a day when you don't think about it?

UNIDENTIFIED: Sure.

BROWN: What will that mean, that day?

UNIDENTIFIED: I don't know if it will mean anything. But it will be nice not to have this cloud over our heads. I mean the guys are never going to forget it, whether you think about them or not down the road we're never going to forget them.

UNIDENTIFIED: Vernon Sherry (ph), he was the fire department singer. Marty Egan (ph), he was a lieutenant here.

UNIDENTIFIED: We could get Joe going pretty good.

UNIDENTIFIED: Pete Vegan (ph), we use used to tease Pete about his head because had he a large cranium.

UNIDENTIFIED: Leon, he's a 6 foot 4 and he had the biggest mitts you ever wanted to see.

UNIDENTIFIED: Scott Davidson (ph), tremendous athlete, basketball player, teacher on he side. Bobby Regen (ph), he was the quietest guy with the biggest smile you ever wanted to see.

UNIDENTIFIED: And Bobby Wallace (ph) was the wacky one of the bunch.

UNIDENTIFIED: We're never going to forget them.

(END VIDEO TAPE)

BROWN: God bless those guys and the guys who made it and the guys who didn't.

Coming up on NEWSNIGHT: one sister's way to honor her lost brother with a hammer and a saw.

This is NEWSNIGHT on the 11th of March.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HOSNI MUBARAK, EGYPTIAN PRESIDENT: It was a dramatic day for all of us. (UNINTELLIGIBLE) when we saw the United States, what happened, we were all shocked. I was sitting before the television. It was 4:00 o'clock in the afternoon, Cairo time. I was in looking at the BBC. So I found a plane going here and there. I thought a game. I saw so many games in your television like this. And suddenly, I see "Breaking News" on the BBC. I was shocked. I couldn't believe it. I stayed from 4:00 o'clock to 9 o'clock on the chair. I didn't move, except I give a statement right away condemning this, supporting the United States of whatever it can do against terrorism because we suffered a lot of (UNINTELLIGIBLE)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BROWN: In its earliest days, before we even had a name, the program made a decision to give life to the people who died on September 11th. They would not be just names to us. And so many died -- 2,830 people in New York in the buildings and on the planes that hit the towers, 189 at the Pentagon in the planes and in the building, another 44 in Pennsylvania, people who may have died victims but not helpless victims.

One of the ways we remembered them and one of the people we remembered was a guy named Ron Rubin (ph). Had his sister told us about him. He was, she told us, a guy who cared about people, worried about people, people he knew and people he didn't. And his family and friends took Ron's Rubin's message to heart in the months after he died. They built something for someone, like Ron would have done if only he had been given more time. So here's Ron Rubin's story and the postscript.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RON RUBIN'S SISTER: If my brother was going to introduce himself to you, he'd be like this. This is how everybody knows him -- with his hands sticking out straight, saying, "Hi, I'm Ron Rubin." He has a million and one friends. Everybody has a Ron story. Either they have a Ron joke or a Ron e-mail or Ron experience. I just want to keep it alive because it just has ended way, way too early.

Ronnie gave so much back. I mean, he gave to every cause. He donated. He got his first bonus from his first employer. He took that bonus and bought holiday presents and donated them to all the hospitals. That's just how he was. He was never too busy to be involved in all of our lives.

I feel the need to turn this negative situation into a positive. I have to show my daughter and my nieces and nephew and all the other kids that something good somehow can come out of this.

If I could get him back for one minute and tell him how many people he really did touch and how many people's hearts -- he really. really did -- and I hope that would make him happy because he has touched so many people. And I don't think he ever realized that.

And that's why I think it's so important that we do something to make sure that he stays involved forever. Building this house and focusing on something positive instead of focusing on the towers coming down and not knowing where Ronnie is -- this has made a really big difference because the more I stay positive, the more I keep things busy, the more we see things up and build our spirit, the better I feel about it.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And Ron used to volunteer his time.

SISTER: Ron volunteered for Habitat also.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He always spoke about leaving his office at the end of the day and not having any tangible proof of him being there. And he always talked about "I want to build something. I want to construct stuff." And then, all of a sudden, here's this tangible proof that Ron was a great person and a good friend to a lot of people.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He didn't pull any punches or hide anything or have any alternative motives in life. He lived and laughed. And you know, I -- hopefully, I can have as full a life as he had. UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I feel like Ron should be here. It's -- he would be so into this, and it's -- it's sad that he's not here. But I -- I think he does see it. I think he sees it and he's with us.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I feel like he's running around here doing something. He'll always be remembered, but he'll always be felt, which is even stronger.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He'd really be proud that we were doing this and that we were helping somebody on behalf of him. Baidev (ph), the recipient of the home, she just -- she knows. Like, she -- I think she knows Ron now. And it will always be filled with that love.

BAIDEV: They're building my house, and it's a wonderful feeling.

I can't express it in words, but the one good thing that I do feel already is that I'm always going to have someone there to watch over me. Ron's always going to be there.

SISTER: Ron, this is in honor of you, to kind of show you and prove to you how much you not only mean to me but to all your friends and to the whole world -- I mean, how much you have given back.

Ron, you did so much. And I'm really proud of you, and this is a little something for you and because I just don't want him to ever be forgotten.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BROWN: The Ron Rubin house is being built along with Habitat for Humanity. It should be completed some time this summer, and a plaque will be placed out front commemorating Ron and the life he led.

Coming up still on NEWSNIGHT a little bit later: a poem written by a survivor that will take your breath away. It's read for us by the actress Mary Tyler Moore. And up next: September 11th as seen in one small and poor corner of rural America.

This is NEWSNIGHT.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ROBERT MCKENIE, DALLAS: You have emotions of fear and anger. Oh, I was mad! And simply for the people there, just disbelief. Couldn't believe it, you know? How can anybody attack the United States and kill innocent people? And as the story unfolded through the day, we just -- you know, there were tears and outrage. I was ready to go to war right then. If I could have done anything, I would have done it in a minute, a New York minute, if you will.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BROWN: In this program about people, here are three more. They share a connection to 9/11 by their occupations and by where they were on that day, the 11th. One is a flight attendant, another a firefighter, another a businessman, and they're all coming to grips with what they saw and what they felt and what they are still experiencing now. We said it at the beginning: Six months just isn't very long. Here's CNN's Candy Crowley.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CANDY CROWLEY, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): As soon as planes were back in the air, flight attendant Christy Barrett (ph) was on the job, tending to passengers.

CHRISTY BARRETT: I was prepared to be there for them. I didn't -- I was not prepared for how concerned they were for me.

CROWLEY: Arlington County firefighter Harry Brady (ph) spent hours and hours over days and days pumping water onto the Pentagon. What he has always done in some fashion seemed differently now.

HARRY BRADY: For awhile there, I couldn't go to a restaurant without somebody buying me lunch or -- you know, sort of like you were a rock star.

CROWLEY: Consultant Roy Bell (ph) was on the elevator on the 78th floor of tower one, headed up for an 8:45 meeting, when the plane hit the building. The initial euphoria at having survived has given way now. He confronts not the kindness of strangers but the strangeness of himself.

ROY BELL: I've been very, very angry. It's getting increasingly worse. As a matter of fact...

CROWLEY: Things are different now in ways both large and small, both precise and undefined.

BELL: Wake up in the morning, and it takes a few seconds before you realize that it's not the same, that things are different. And that -- there's an empty feeling.

CROWLEY: Only two people on that elevator survived. Bell suffered second and third-degree burns. Three surgeries later, there are no noticeable scars until he talks.

BELL: You know, you get in the shower and you just -- you know, you push those feelings away. And so you're going to charge. You're going to go out there. You're going to have a good time. You're going to sell stuff. You're going to be successful. You're going to Have a great dinner someplace tonight, and maybe there's no tomorrow.

CROWLEY: Farther from ground zero, the emotional blow-back is not gale force, but the change is real, not so much things changing but people, the same job now wholly different.

BARRETT: You also have this feeling of I'm definitely in charge of this life-or-death situation now.

CROWLEY: Arlington County's oldest firefighter, Brady has seen a lifetime of death and fire and destruction. But this is a new marker.

BRADY: It's sort of a reference point in your life, like getting married or having a child, but it's -- you know, it's a reference point. It's always -- the rest of your life, it'll be before 9/11 or after 9/11.

CROWLEY: And Roy Bell is back in work and back in therapy, wrestling with himself and all that used to be familiar.

BELL: Like yesterday, I was, you know, taking the ferry over to work. And a huge tanker went by. I said, "Jeez, that could be the dirty bomb which we read about in `The Times' every day." I try to stay away from media -- you guys.

CROWLEY: And he is coping, finding comfort in the everydayness in life.

BELL: Focusing on the Yankees, Big East basketball and my job, my wife, my dog, my beach house, surfing, playing golf, living, having fun.

CROWLEY: Candy Crowley, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BROWN: We never thought of 9/11 as a New York story or Washington story. From the first moments on this roof, that day, that September day, we saw it as an American story. We believed then and we believe now that no matter where you lived in the country, no matter how rich you were, how poor, no matter your race, your language, you too were attacked that day.

Far from the glitz and the noise and the bright lights of New York are some of the poorest people in America. They live in the hills of eastern Kentucky, and at first, you think of them as storybook characters, thick accents and powerful moonshine. But they are your countrymen, and they were attacked, too. Here's CNN's Serena Altschul.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SERENA Altschul, CNN CORRESPONDENT: How far is Owsley (ph) County.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is 717. You got to get on 15.

ALTSCHUL: OK.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: All right?

Churches, satellite dishes. We have just arrived in Booneville (ph), which is a town in eastern Kentucky, in the county of Owsley, which is one of the poorest counties in the entire country. One in three people here live below the poverty line. We came here to talk to some of the people that you don't often get to hear from.

We'd like to ask you or your mom, you know, how you guys were affected by September 11th.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Well, we watched it on TV, and it just -- we all cried.

ALTSCHUL: And the town? Did you notice things were different afterwards, like, right away or...

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yeah. I mean, people started putting flags up and signs and helping raise money and stuff.

ALTSCHUL: And this is an area that doesn't have a lot of money itself.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yeah. This is a poor county.

ALTSCHUL: You definitely see a lot of poverty in this area, but one of the things you can't miss: the flags on the cars and on the doors. So we're going to head in here and try and talk to these guys.

Have you always had electricity and running water and...

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No. I didn't get electricity until I was about 6 year old. Then we moved out. I thought I was in heaven.

ALTSCHUL: Yeah. Have things changed for you since September 11th, do you notice?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Not really. About the same.

ALTSCHUL: What about making a way, making a living? It's not gotten a little tougher?

(CROSSTALK)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Maybe.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's always been rough around here, though, so...

ALTSCHUL: Is that right.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yeah.

Altschul (voice-over): From there, we stopped by the local music store to see how business was affected by September 11th.

(on camera): It's warm in here. You guys have your stoves on.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yeah, we got our pot belly be going like...

ALTSCHUL: Nice! It gives off a lot of heat.

Was it busier before September 11th?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yeah, business was doing pretty good. Then it just fell off. It just died. I mean, I've sat here all month and sell a couple sets of strings, and that'd be it. I've had several people to buy the American straps that normally they wouldn't buy, you know. So it's been a pretty good seller, you know, bring in a little change, you know?

Altschul (voice-over): Then we drove further into the countryside, where the ripples of September 11th could be felt even at a local farm.

(on camera): So you know most everyone around here?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yeah, about everybody knows everybody around here.

ALTSCHUL: All of these horses are for sale?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yeah.

ALTSCHUL: How are sales right now.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Decent.

ALTSCHUL: Yeah.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They fell off some.

ALTSCHUL: Since September 11th.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yeah. Yeah. A lot of people ain't coming in from out of state, buying right now. Some days, you trade four or five times. Some days, you don't trade nary.

ALTSCHUL: She's going to lay an egg up there!

(voice-over): Then I was offered some mountain hospitality.

(on camera): What is it?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's moonshine.

ALTSCHUL: OK.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Take you a little taste.

ALTSCHUL: That's very strong! That's good.

(voice-over): Back in town, we went to what used to be the county jail.

(on camera): This is a food bank, where people can come every week to pick up a box of food that they're just given to help them live.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We've got this lunch meat, and we've got hot dogs.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Food program here, it helps people out a lot. ALTSCHUL: This is the main food room?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yeah, this is the main food room, where we store things. And we make boxes.

ALTSCHUL: This used to be -- used to be the detention center.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Well, this used to be the jail.

Altschul (voice-over): Here volunteers are coping with problems that existed long before September 11th.

(on camera): What sort of stuff do you pick up?

SARAH: Beef stew, chicken and dumplings, rise, a number of things.

Altschul (voice-over): We followed Sarah (ph) back to her trailer, which has no running water. But it was her September 11th journal that she wanted to share with us.

SARAH: "Residents of the county were all in shock as acts of terrorism was felt here, as throughout the world. Many people stayed home, listening to their TVs' and radios' news all day for information on the attack."

ALTSCHUL: And before we left, Sarah's father offered up one of his favorite songs.

FATHER (SINGING): I'm hoping and I'm praying that my heartbreak (UNINTELLIGIBLE) too. I'm walking the floor over you.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: They say that Owsley county's the most povertish people of, you know, anybody. But we probably got the most spirit of anybody, too.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BROWN: The rest of the country.

Coming up: How life has changed. a remarkable poem read by the equally remarkable Mary Tyler Moore.

This is NEWSNIGHT from New York.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BROWN: The two lights that were the Trade Center.

Finally from us tonight, how one life has charged. We're going to dispense with the big wind-up for this piece. It's so powerful on its own that we don't think any description from us could make it better or do it justice. So we'll just tell you this is a poem written by one survivor about her co-workers. And it is read for us by the actress Mary Tyler Moore. MARY TYLER MOORE: "How My Life Has Changed," a poem by Hillary North (ph), employee of the Aon Corporation, which lost 176 people on September 11th.

I can no longer flirt with Lou (ph). I can no longer dance with Myra (ph). I can no longer eat brownies with Suzanne Wye (ph). I can no longer meet the deadline with Mark (ph). I can no longer talk to George (ph) about his daughter. I can no longer drink coffee with rich (ph). I can no longer make a good impression on Chris (ph).

I can no longer smile at Paul L. I can no longer confide in Lisa (ph). I can no longer work on a project with Donna R (ph). I can no longer get to know Yolanda (ph). I can no longer call the client with Nick (ph). I can no longer contribute to Karen (ph)'s book drive. I can no longer hang out with Millie (ph).

I can no longer give career advice to Suzanne P (ph). I can no longer laugh with Donna G (ph). I can no longer watch Mary Ellen (ph) cut through the bull. I can no longer drink beer with Paul B (ph). I can no longer have a meeting with Dave W (ph). I can no longer leave a message with Andrea (ph). I can no longer gossip with Anna (ph).

I can no longer run into Dave P. (ph) at the vending machine. I can no longer call Steve (ph) about my computer. I can no longer compliment Lorenzo (ph). I can no longer hear Herman's (ph) voice. I can no longer trade voice mails with Norman (ph). I can no longer ride the elevator with Barbara (ph). I can no longer say hello to Steven (ph) every morning.

I can no longer see the incredible view from the 103rd floor of the south tower. I can no longer take my life for granted.

BROWN: Some day we'll understand all of this better. Some day.

That's our report for tonight. For all of us at NEWSNIGHT, thank you. We'll see you tomorrow from New York.

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