Return to Transcripts main page

CNN Sunday Morning

Interview With Mark Coatney

Aired September 01, 2002 - 07:06   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

CATHERINE CALLAWAY, CNN ANCHOR: As we approach this first anniversary of the attacks, "Time" magazine is dedicating a commemorative issue to the mood in America, 12 months after the events of 9/11. The magazine, which appears on the newsstands tomorrow, is trying to find out just how life has changed in the U.S. since the attacks. Now the magazine has conducted a poll for this issue. And joining us from New York to talk about it is Mark Coatney. He's of Time.com
Hello, Mark, thanks for being with us this morning.

MARK COATNEY, TIME.COM: Well, thank you. Good morning.

CALLAWAY: I was looking through, this is a rather lengthy survey that was done, a rather lengthy poll that was done. And I -- perhaps one of the most interesting things out of this was how people are doing now, 12 months since September 11. And you ask, is their life back to normal? And it was -- let's see if we can go to some of those results for everyone.

Is your life back to normal after 9/11? Not at all, 20 percent. Somewhat, 37 percent. Completely, did we get all that on there? Here we go, some -- yes, this is the wrong one. We apologize. But it seems like people are still being affected by 9/11, but life goes on?

COATNEY: Sure. You know, that's the kind of main thing that we got out of this poll, which is that nearly everyone we talked to, two- thirds say that, you know, this was like a watershed of incident. No one is obviously forgetting it. A lot of people are going to be spending September 11 memorializing and doing things like, I think 80 percent of those polled said that they were going to pray. A very high number to fly American flags, spend time with their family and things like that...

CALLAWAY: Well...

COATNEY: So it's definitely like...

CALLAWAY: ...I don't want to interrupt you, Mark, but I just want to show everybody what I was just talking about is on the screen now. And as we can see, not at all, 20 percent. Somewhat, 37 percent. And not affected by 9/11, 31 percent. That surprised me a little bit. I guess everyone truly is moving on, aren't they?

COATNEY: They are, you know, in a lot of ways. I mean, it -- which isn't to say, I don't think, that it says the people have forgotten about it, but that, you know, life does go on. It is a year later. It -- in a lot of ways. I mean, for instance, although 90 percent of the people polled said that they really supported the way President Bush's handled the war on terror, only 30 percent say that that's going to affect how they vote in 2004.

People say that things like the economy and things like that are becoming much more an issue for them, which makes sense. I mean, you know, people are, you know, life does go on. You start to worry about your job, your family, and other things like that.

CALLAWAY: And you also mention what people plan to do on September 11 this year. You mention that I think we do have the results to that. And you're right. They said 80 percent, they want to fly the flag on September 11. Praying, 77 percent. And here we go, watch a television program I guess commemorating September 11, 68 percent, right?

COATNEY: Right. I'm sorry, go ahead.

CALLAWAY: No, you go ahead.

COATNEY: Oh. Well no, it's just -- what I also take out of that is another interesting point that came out of this thing was only a slight majority of people polled did not favor making September 11 a national holiday, but just a very slight -- so actually, the nation's fairly split on that. Although kids, interestingly enough, in another poll that we took, did think that this 9/11 should be a national holiday.

CALLAWAY: Kids love a holiday, but...

COATNEY: Well...

CALLAWAY: ...you know, you have to wonder if maybe children have been more affected by this in some ways than adults. Adults can, you know, understand that life goes on, but children certainly weren't prepared to handle something like that.

COATNEY: Well, no, and especially in New York City. I mean, kids, especially those polled who lived in New York City, were very likely to think about the attacks and everything all the time.

CALLAWAY: Right.

COATNEY: Although that said, you know, kids as a whole nationwide, you know, they are fairly resilient. And the numbers of kids who, of kids who have thought about the 9/11, are significantly lower than the number of adults who still think about it all the time.

CALLAWAY: You know, seeing how people feel now, a year later, whether or not they're feeling safe, that was interesting too, some of the results. And that I think one of the questions you asked was are we going to see another act of terrorism in the U.S. in the next 12 months? And the results to that were 50 percent, somewhat likely. 29 percent, very likely. Only 19 percent said not likely at all. COATNEY: Right, most people, which you know is interesting. People are getting on with their lives, but they fully expect that something more is going to happen. Although no one really expects something to happen on the anniversary of 9/11, but they're ready for something else.

CALLAWAY: They seem to be thinking that the homeland security department is doing a good job at least.

COATNEY: Yes.

CALLAWAY: We have a poll that said 59 percent believe that homeland security's doing a pretty good job, but no one -- well, hardly anyone believed that they were doing a very good job, with just eight percent believing that. And poor job, 24 percent. What does that tell you?

COATNEY: Well, actually, what I think it tells me is that not that many people -- it's hard to tell what the homeland security office is doing right now. So I think a lot of that is just people, you know, have a general feeling that, you know, things are going OK. So they must be doing a good job, but I don't think anyone really has a firm opinion on it.

Unlike say the FBI and the CIA and things like that, because there is a pretty widespread sentiment in this poll also that people feel that the FBI and the intelligence services did not do a good job of being ready for 9/11 in the days leading up to it.

CALLAWAY: You know, Mark, there was so much uncertainty on September 11 last year and September 12. And that for the first few months, even after then on how we would recover and what we would be like a year later. It's interesting to read the results of this poll. Thank you very much for being with us this morning. Mark Coatney with Time.com.

COATNEY: All right, thank you.

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