Return to Transcripts main page

CNN Live At Daybreak

America Begins Recovery From Terrorism

Aired October 11, 2001 - 09:57   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.
PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: So much has happened since September 11, so many things are different. Some of those changes are obvious, some aren't.

We end this hour with our own Bruce Morton, who looks at what we've been through in these weeks filled with horror and with heroes.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BRUCE MORTON, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It's been a month. We have watched and mourned. We've been to church.

It's been a month that we have watched an untested president be tested hard.

GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We will not tire. We will not falter. And we will not fail.

MORTON: Most of us told pollsters we think the new president has met his test.

It's been a month, and our lives have changed. Empty shops, more security at airports. Our values have changed.

Education still matters, but safe neighborhoods for our kids may matter more.

In June, we told pollsters education was the most important issue. Now it's defense.

We have accepted, we say, that this will be a long struggle. We have accepted that we will bear losses beyond those of that first day.

And something else has happened: Looking at the faces those first days -- the firemen, police, rescue workers -- we realized we were looking at government doing things that needed to be done. Looking at the jets leaving the carriers, we were looking at government doing things that needed to be done.

The old cynicism: Government's the problem, they're all crooks, has lessened. We told polls we trust government most of the time, say we want government to do more to solve our problems. We didn't say that a few months back. And we have come together. No one cared what religion, what ethnicity the heroes working in the rubble were. They were Americans. We came together; just look at all the flags.

More of us, I suspect, now believe that evil exists. It wears a human face, just like the goodness we saw in the ruins.

So we move on, not back to normal, that's impossible, but forward, on a long, hard road. It's been a month.

Bruce Morton, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com