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CNN Live Today

Some Midwesterners Fearful

Aired September 13, 2001 - 15:51   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: Around the country Americans look at people like Sharon, look at what has happened in the city trying to make sense of it all. We are, I suspect, as a country, a bit closer in many ways over the last several days in many ways than we have been before.

Jeff Flock in is Wisconsin today, he has been talking to people in the center of the country, in the middle of the country and he joins us now --Jeff.

JEFF FLOCK, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Aaron, we are indeed trekking across America this week trying to get a sense for what folks are feeling away from the disaster. We are in Port Washington, Wisconsin, this is the home of Alan Edmunds, perhaps you have heard of him. They make shoes, the largest domestic manufacturer of shoes.

And we are talking to people on the production line today and I just want to get a sense of where your head is today, Rachel, three days hence.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: A little bit of fear and sadness right about now because you don't know if it's over. Are there more things that are going to happen.

FLOCK: Is that your fear, that more is to come?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I fear that there is going to be more to come. Maybe now or maybe five years down the road or ten years down the road or when my children are grown, what is to come of this if anybody thinks they can do it again, and sadness for all the families and friends of all the victims in New York and at the Pentagon and things like that, that they have to go through such a tragedy for something senseless.

FLOCK: I hear you. I want to move on. A lot of people were telling us today that up to now it's been shock, but now we are almost getting to the point of anger.

What about you, sir? Where is your head today?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: My head? I'm angry at what happened. I have a lot of faith in, myself, our country, that things are going to turn around. We will be going after retaliation.

FLOCK: You told me you were hearkening back to the biblical line of...

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth. That's what it is going to take.

FLOCK: I hear the anger in your voice. I appreciate it. Thanks.

As you go to work, as you spend your time out here, where is your head today?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Just that I'm a little scared. I'm afraid. I don't know was the future hold for my kids. I don't know if they are going to come back and do this again, or when they are going to do it again. And I just pray that the president makes the right choice.

FLOCK: If I can sneak around to John over here. John, I know you spend a lot of your time traveling. The airports are open again today. Is air travel, as we know it, going to be the same?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No, I'm afraid not. I think we have been spoiled way too long. I think there is going to be a lot of irate people once they get used to the new system but I think that is the way it is going to have to be and I think people will get used to it.

FLOCK: You are OK with that?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I think so, I am.

FLOCK: Also, some sense out there in the hinterlands for how much this tragedy has touched people. Dean Carls (ph), your son works at the Pentagon?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, he is a lieutenant colonel stationed at the Pentagon. He has been there since the beginning of July.

FLOCK: You left work on Tuesday not knowing...

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Not knowing if he was alive.

FLOCK: And you learned?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Well, I got home shortly after, I got a phone call and very fortunately he was alive. He said dad, I got out of there all right. I got to my truck which was a block and a half way and I got home to Alexandria, Virginia, so was safe. I thought he was dead. I was certain he was dead. I want to express my condolences to all the families who lost members of their family or who were injured or lost. New York, Pennsylvania and at the Pentagon.

FLOCK: Thank you very much. When you think about what comes forward from this, any ideas? You look into your crystal ball?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: No. first of all, I wanted to send my sympathy to families in New York, the victims, their families and right now, we can't believe it happened here in this country, the United States.

We are afraid of what is going to be happening next for our future.

FLOCK: I hear that. Vicky, thank you. We don't want to get away without the man who is the president of the company. And you are all alike here today. Hey, John. John Stallworth (ph) president of Allen Edmunds. Your head, you were supposed to be traveling. You were supposed to be going to a shoe show in Europe.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Germany on Tuesday and we were at O'Hare Airport and got word and turned around and came back in the car, about 150 miles from O'Hare and I have been trying to get on ever since, talking a lot to United Airlines.

FLOCK: We know that the airports are back open today but you don't have any hope about traveling any time soon, do you?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No, no international. It might start tomorrow. So we will go down tomorrow.

FLOCK: You are a businessman. Give me some sense of the impact, you spend a lot of time on aircraft. I take it you are somewhat accustomed to some degree of convenience and being able to make things happen. Where are you thinking we are going right now?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I don't think this is going to help the economy at all, and I do believe, along with my coworkers and friends and European friends and customers, that we should act decisively and quickly against Afghanistan and Iraq, and it should not be a legal debate with the Cabinet and lawyers in the White House.

FLOCK: What are you talking about "decisively?" What are you specifically talking about?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: If I was running the country I would declare war at this point. They have been tweaking us for years. They did our embassy, they killed those marines, they have been at the World Trade Tower a couple of years ago and it's time that we put an end to it.

FLOCK: I know the president is a friend of yours. Wears your shoes, I know.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You bet. He's a customer.

FLOCK: Do you have any hesitancy of sharing this with the president?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We have sent some e-mails from here. I along with my co-workers.

FLOCK: John, appreciate it. Thanks very much. Our trek across the country, Aaron, will continue, to get some sense of what people out here are thinking. Back to you. BROWN: It is a reminder of course that this is not just a New York tragedy, though it is certainly that, not just a Washington tragedy. It's an American tragedy affecting everyone in the country to one degree or another.

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