The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer

fb fb is b

new un good evening i'm jim lehrer on the newshour tonight the developments in the story of today's hijacked airliner assaults an interview with transportation secretary norman mineta a look at today's prayers and memorials here and overseas a report on the reaction from american muslims and the thoughts of our newshour essayist clarence page roger rosenblatt jim fischer and taylor fleming and richard rodriguez major funding for the newshour with jim lehrer has been provided by imagine a world where no child banks have food and how someone can that is a long time to come

pbs station kuow ashley cleek president bush said today the united states is on a crusade against a new kind of evil he urged americans to return to work and not be cowed by the suicide claim attacks on new york and washington he also said he gave orders to say there were difficult but necessary earlier on nbc vice president cheney said the president ordered the military to shoot down any i jacked iran or still headed for washington that was shortly after two planes flew into the world trade center towers in new york us combat planes were unable to act in time to prevent a third airliner from diving into the pentagon more than five thousand people were killed in the attacks eight fourth hijacked airliner crashed in a pennsylvania field the vice president also warned today that nations shelter in osama bin ladin would face the full wrath of the

united states he's a prime suspect in the attacks and is thought to be living in afghanistan today he again denied involvement but pakistan announced it would send a delegation to afghanistan the men he didn't hand over bin ladin also today secretary of state powell told cnn a ban on foreign assassinations was under review attorney general ashcroft said he would seek expanded wiretapping authority and transportation secretary panetta announced an emergency taskforce on air travel security elsewhere the victims of the attacks were remembered and religious services outside rome pope john paul the second are celebrated an outdoor mass for forty thousand people later he said he was heartbroken but he appealed to the united states not to respond with hatred and violence in new york city at the world trade center site the number of missing rose again the nearly five thousand one hundred and major efforts continued to ready the financial district for reopening tomorrow at the

pentagon more of the roof collapsed last night but no one was injured today workers continued moving deeper into the building and delta airlines joined other major carriers announcing it would cut service by twenty percent the details now vice president cheney and then president bush talked about the events and decisions of tuesday on legal reports the president's top advisors took to the airwaves in force this morning on nbc vice president dick cheney made his first public statement since the attacks he was asked about criticism of the decision that the president go to strategic air command headquarters in nebraska consider returning directly to washington as the attacks were unfolding tuesday when you make a recommendation of the president's stay where you are go to a secure facility nebraska were you ever concerned that ever enter your thought process that there will be criticism of the president for not coming

back to washington during a crisis i didn't really think about women's subjects are cut case in my estimation that's the most important is to preserve the presidents and we don't know what's happened to washington under attack we don't mind would've become an initial claim to come and we go well as planned course at that point both within about thirty five or forty minutes we've seen this unfolding of this monstrous terrorist attack and present to racism or no qualms about off the water to come back we talked on repeatedly during the course of the day you may carry water back soon as we thought made sense the secret service did not want him back in even talk to me on to try to get me to about what a couple times but i didn't want to leave that is the note that we've established there in terms of having all this communications with them decisions and that's left

them on helicopter and and the launch of the white house although in the broken down and we had the president's assertion grew into its ally other's predicaments they want the vice president gave the first official confirmation that the military was ready to shoot down the fourth hijacked a jetliner upon the order of the president before it crashed in pennsylvania so in the eye and says government became aware of the hijacker shoreline with the us and for the white house or the couple we would take the final us president made a decision on my recommendation as well whole heartedly concurred in the decision made that if over the plane would not divert if it went any intention instructions to move away from the city as a last resort about how some people say you know that's a tremendous decision and politicians in an airplane full of american citizens civilians are captured by hostages that i cared for by tariffs that of the minority were in fact shoot down on the flint

hills america boren ask yourself if we had had come under control but new york and we had the opportunity to take out the two aircraft at the world trade center what we have been just absolutely worried about turnout we did not have to execute on that authorization for the recent a few moments we thought we might when planes were in coming and we didn't know whether or not to leave before going elsewhere that will be the policy of nine states and we will present more sure make a decision if those circumstances arise again it's a presidential level decision then the president made i think exactly the right on stage to say i wish we had gotten better we now have both wore a recession quite possibly we clearly have a war against terrorism and we don't know yet what the third quarter's lifeblood of the economist feminine and revise the second quarter down in the

negative territory in terms of the gross domestic product growth in the third quarter fourth fourth quarter third quarter fourth quarter of this economic shock from this that comes in at the end will have the definition to a negative quarters of course the president arrived at the white house from camp david this afternoon he was asked about his order tuesday morning to shoot down suspicious aircraft i gave our military few orders necessary to protect americans do whatever it would take to protect americans of course is difficult never given any bodies thought process about how to protect america and we everything that evildoers would fly now one before commercial aircraft into precious us targets never and so obviously when i was told what

was taking place when i was informed that a unidentified aircraft was headed to the heart of the capital i was concerned oh i'm concerned about my decision was more concerned about the lives of innocent americans i hadn't realized her there on the ground floor that we're under attack but never did i drain we've been under attack dissuade us what's at the american people will never seen this kind of evil before but that evildoers have never seen the american people i imagine before either and they're about the find out that you over much now a newsmaker interview with transportation secretary norman mineta i spoke with him earlier this at the effect you're welcome thank you are much and i understand you're in the situation room at the white house with the vice president cheney when the decision was made to shoot down an airliner it's necessarily what were the circumstances where what was the situation at the time well actually that decision had already

been made before i was there and so i was aware that that was the situation but that i was not there during the discussion i came in to the operation center probably about ten must've been about nine twenty three nine fifteen and nine twenty and so what will be i'm so the decision about what to do with their own account of aircraft was there already made at the time there was still one unaccounted for well actually a ticket at the time when you're out there there are eight altogether three workouts to work out of for so we essentially have six unaccounted for at the time and then because it was it the story about an airplane being down on the ohio kentucky border of that turned out not to be the case

so you know we were able to eliminate the others and then known gotten to the point where they were four paragraph that and we were looking for and to have gone into the world but a baby and then there's this the third was headed for the pentagon and the word was with the blm us military picture that plane down if it continued on an erratic target is at what you're understanding well mia it as i understand the standing order was that aircraft were to be kept away from restricted areas and so what the specifics about what that actually be i'm not sure but i know that is the earl who were trying to account for the one airplane there was this other that was coming up the river and so some concern about that one and your role the arm of transportation money at the faa his role in this whole

situation a striking airplane could actually had at the time it's like anything else when one of something occurs it's an accident when two of the same things occur it's a pattern when three and the same thing occurs it's a program we knew that some i had heard that being in the operation center with a vice president something happened at the pentagon and we thought it was a bar and there was some talk know a lot of in a helicopter then it became apparent that it was a commercial airliner that had gone into the pentagon so then at that point not knowing which are quite it was i then called every film to bring all they replace them right now get them to their destination safely

and it's really amazing when you think about close to twenty two hundred aircraft being up in the air at the time and through the work of the air traffic controllers like ted cruz and the airlines and more private pilots say they were able to bring down close to twenty two hundred airplanes and less than two hours or new development division over shorter the vice president said earlier today that and then there was an order put out by the president's decision was made by the president that if there was one of these airline as it seemed headed for a a target that the us military should shoot it down you are aware of that as this thing was coming to a conclusion correct well and the i knew that said that there was something that had already been decided and that's when this other airplane that was coming up the river and the question was would we do it and that was really outside of my jurisdiction although i'm sitting at the table but i don't have nothing to do with their

portion of the euro what is this what was the state of airline travel in the united states today added ago today we had that roughly a forty eight hundred and eighty seven flights head to twelve fifty so in terms of the operations of aircraft leaving and being in the air and landing that represents about sixty five percent of the normal flights that would be up i'd say on sunday afternoon at one pm all that went smoothly the problem is because of the reluctance of people apply probably about twenty percent of those seats were filled in any one of those airplanes are very large many people flying and yet fully selected flights there are still a lot of people at the airport because they are now having to mali go through a magnetometer but they're also been wanted in terms of being there with their arms up and having

someone go with the wand around their work what about international flights are there where are they for the international flights are allowed to take off international flights inbound from what we call extraordinary airports are allowed to come in those are really the major countries england scotland germany and would have these flights coming in right now now the new us at you and security measures that you have an effect are you would you believe that is it fair to say that had they been in effect on to see these hijackings would never about you know i can't really guarantee that that might've been the case because anyone who is intent on getting around whatever can do so you know there's certain things that fly people you buy one way ticket it from the animal a check luggage so that those are

the ones that are the profile might say check this person now so there are ways to do that and what we're trying to do now do we have put in these new extensive secured stringent security measures and what i've done is to form two response teams ready response teams have as industry people to help us out on this we have our internal v o t f eight people working on airplane security and on another one on airport security so on airport security i guess the ray kelly former customs ahead and they're cheaper than la and new york police department and a half also partly because of the airport executives association and

they're also want her killer from southwest airlines to help us out on the airport security so on the airplane side of as bob baker from a vice chairman of the american airlines are doing were the captain of a the airline pilots association and the bob davis a retired executive with boeing and another one in a lighted tennis association to advisers as we devising these rules or new stringent met measures to advise us on the practicality and whether or not it says something that would really worked whenever center now i would assume that every american should consider find safer not right now what i think it is safe and i am now be boarding an aircraft or later this week as i make summer travels of my own anger but i would board a plane

today i think the measures we have a hulk our good i was at the baltimore row washington international airport yesterday watching what was going on and i mean i'm talking to flight for personnel and talking to the airline people at the desks i i think we have a they increased level of scrutiny and that it is safe to fly another issue of course is that financial impact this is having on the airlines' a united airlines american airlines delta airlines continental airlines of all announced one percent cut and servers continental is a layoff twelve thousand and always their fears of bankruptcies what is the bush administration and overactive well as soon as this occurred on tuesday wednesday i asked at one of our road to upset people to look at the financial condition of the airlines because it was apparent that when you have airlines that collectively

are taking and two hundred fifty two hundred and eighty million dollars a day that always said to have those revenues cut off and have an impact on the airlines' when they have fixed cost of let's say a hundred seventy hundred and eighty million dollars a day so our vets workout started on wednesday and looking at the financial conditions and on tuesday i will be meeting with the ceo's and there seattle was the chief financial officers of airlines have to take a look at this is a bill that is working its way in congress are dealing with a direct the reimbursement to the airlines for losses they've suffered from tuesday's events as well as credits loan guarantees or other kinds of that credit being extended to airlines for making sure that their financial condition is he's maintained so it's something you feel the federal government's responsibility

for what actually because the other problem is here in new york state law that says airlines are liable for our collateral damage well just the damage your liability from the twin towers are going down i would stop american airlines united airlines writings tracks today back to the security issue for a moment to one airport that has not reopened is reagan national airport here in washington there's some speculation that it may never reopened is that correct i would not go as far as to say that it may never have their aura security considerations when the pentagon the white house cia right in the end the direct know the flight path into a reagan national airport what we have said is that we will allow departures to the south and arrivals from the south over reagan national airport but nothing is to report to the north or out

right from the north and reagan national airport problem is that that limits to a live audience going to watch now that you're allowing to arrive in the part right that are right now we just try to clear the air right out on their private in order to try to plan for the scheduled operations of the airlines they will have to hold the park to yourself or i'll rise of the self and that would be a very restrictive and also in terms of the type of aircraft that would then be able to use the reagan international airport will wield be doing that in conjunction with the national security council in terms of what are recommending who will ultimately make that decision the national security council make that has a lot of this is going to be a security issue in general terms adding up everything that that you know and that is in place an in the works at this moment as flying for traveling by airplane in this country jane

fervor yes there's no question from the time lover since tuesday the all of the id national transportation systems are going to be different about aviation itself has dramatically changed we're receiving about hostage taking on an airplane now we have to look at the airplane itself being the weapon and a solo this change aviation dramatically since tuesday but soccer effective are much thank you jim our team still to come on the newshour tonight the day of prayers and our essay is from new york race war a report crab from above you can see there's still the extent of the destruction around the place where the world trade center stood down low

search team sifted through the debris still looking for survivors bulldozers continue to clear some of the four hundred and fifty thousand tons of rubble from the two buildings is it still officially a search and rescue operation despite the new estimates of the missing fifty one hundred in rising this morning mayor rudy giuliani caution but they may not find anyone else online the hope is still there that we might be able to save some lives but the reality is that in the last several days we haven't found anyone and the reports of it being activity at some time or other than several of those i met him because this foliage of the feeling and so much of a sense that we want that to be true over four seven on a trip please raise your identity that the make the male promoted one hundred and sixty six firefighters many of them filling posts of the firefighters and officers who died in

tuesday's attacks nearby there's a memorial site for the one hundred and eighty confirmed dead and for those still missing people left flowers cards candles and flex i visited so sad so i wondered how does one of the funding union square has been the site of public demonstrations in new york for well over a century this one was an organized just the result of hundreds and hundreds of people who felt they had to do something allegedly this moment to get michael bowman's for both wars the lovers most fans brother's wives husbands and to let the law that the novel though new york was not a comfort hosts a low cot and left his messages of the grieving pamela solomon mccabe kissed her hebrew scripture and touched it to the faces of the dead quite frankly the people that are left behind their loved ones their children the people they saw every day that were affected

by this terrible terrible and now i can see it in the rubble and i can i can pray for these people making free really hard for their family second time you raid so that means that is another mosque pray we open to having that many souls to cross over into family jose reyes simply lit candles when they blew out in the morning breeze and miguel santiago played his saxophone and hope there might be a non violent end to this story begun in so much violence veteran for what vietnam but i think that the violence that i could see my sleeping together at a time like

this fantasy though that gets me a public talk a secular temple in the open air rang with sufi of those music or wind two miles up so why is saying the real thor is moving requiem the kind of crowds that would normally pack st bartholomew the visible church in east christians filled every last scene for a special service of remembrance and home in his sermon director william tully talks of the love of new yorkers for their city and their faith in the future and after the vast congregation cheered the bread and wine of the eucharist a close with fanfare for the common man or

we shall overcome in a rousing states is back to play the pain is nice to be on the page there were also services of remembrance and prayer elsewhere in the world today

commandeered reports on the english letters filled washington national cathedral and other area churches this morning for services that were full of somber reminders of the grim week before yeah at the national shrine at catholic university special prayers were offered for the country we support meeting families and loved ones and strengthen the thousands of that rescue workers who have just wrestled doleful task it's far from over in the rubble of new york the pentagon and pennsylvania america's loss was more that the vatican as well during this morning's mass pope john paul the second offered a prayer saying he was heartbroken by the attacks but he asked families friends and survivors to show restraint and maintain peace even in the wake of a loss in denver people also turn their religions for consolation series of special prayer services are taking place all

week on friday catholics came in droves overflowing the cathedral of the immaculate concept nico pitney dr viviane sobering it is it is muslims or islamic center among dr ahmad germany sent to

basic tenants of his long condemned those who attacked america that hasn't really the attack on the world trade center and the pentagon in new york and dc is completely refuting islam and it's not accepted under any circumstances for the killing of civilians and innocent people is absolutely prohibited in our religion islam is up up what the small group of deranged murderers have plotted and committed regardless of their origin at the end of the service worshippers collect donations for the injured rescue workers and families the service took place under the watchful eyes of county sheriff's deputies who have been on station at the mosque since tuesday they arrested a man who said he hadn't aka forty seven assault rifle in his car but a search turned up nothing i need it

later on friday evening there was also an overflow crowd at temple emanuel where they began the service by singing the israeli national anthem for law rabbi stephen foster warned against unfairly targeting people of arabic descent their friends we worry about all we should not be in this position to say yet arabs get the muscles i know deep inside when his old thing happened we said to ourselves if there was anybody there was a narrative that we want the world to see the arabs like that but when we do that we begin to see every year you know human beings not just as many people see all of us as legal and we

don't want we don't like it we cannot place that tag of evil upon others ray rabbi foster said some members of his congregation are emotionally devastated others are angry this man came up to me before i had to speak and says rabbi what you think we should do it i said well freddy i think we should slow tone of it is just i think we should bomb the hell out of a prison he says i don't know what we should bomb the hell out of him and i gave his talk and afterwards he said rabbi was a good talk well as didn't agree with you so there are a few people who don't and i think the same her hands even have to prevail in this pastor rick ferguson also senses a wide range of emotions he leads riverside baptist church which has some four thousand members when people turn to religion i think there's a tendency in human nature to be self sufficient an independent to run our lives independently

but then we hit a wall we realize our resources are sufficiency has its limits and it's at that point that we discovered that we discover we have to trust god there's no place else to turn and so people aren't compelled him to turn to god whose resources are limitless after ferguson expected a large crowd at the first service morning and he wasn't disappointed he chose to address several fundamental questions he said christians face including the question of retaliation he seizes said blessed are the peacemakers for basically called the sons of god and obeying these directives from price for taxes from becoming their own angry people obeying the directives from private protects us from turning into the kind of people like the people who carried out these murders right now get a few miles away at the macedonia baptist church reverend paul martin told his flock that prayer is the answer not say as

soon as word that's rare other rights is available months we are the right it's we are god's chosen people we are the ones lot of the brain was actually what they also for justice reverend martin says that like the others his congregation a fearful and angry and want justice we have preached and taught that the engines in anger belong what we can be angry and i think is that there is some anger but the incidents that the engine side we'd been taught that it belongs to god i think what we are seeing emerge though is a real concern that those who are responsible will be brought to justice and that if it takes some kind of military action or activity to find out who they are where they are and i think justice is something that we're all looking for an

adventurous for justice if the vendor it came to their houses of worship this week we have a church a synagogue or a mosque fared sadness anger and fear they also shared something else a treatment plant city as tom burns said the american muslim community has particular concerns jeff replay of casey at los angeles has more on that part of the story along the way like other americans across the country are muslim students at the new horizons school in los angeles remembered the dead and injured and depressed those days this was the

students for a state that a school run by the islamic center of southern california shut down on tuesday after the attacks in new york and washington dc how many but there is no seventy eight students showed up thursday the attack many parents and their children away says principal fifty dollars on she reassured the students in attendance it wasn't just about like you had to tell your parents that the enigmatic game to school today and we do have lots of security and we need to see all of you here in school every day there's apprehension throughout ballet's muslim community estimated quarter of a million people many muslims and arab americans remember how they unfairly became targets of suspicion after the oklahoma city bombing this week the offices of the muslim public affairs council an advocacy group

received messages of hatred soon after tuesday's attacks and then another you know by a different person that tell you that the devil we will have a bench and then there's another one the one that really no way to treat the fbi in this office stories have also been coming in about anti muslim incidents around the country are incidents ranged from graffiti in los angeles the gunshots fired into an unoccupied texas mosque i really need to get together and and listen to each other a phone call by phone call sir elton always trying to stave off hatred and tom we said she herself got a taste of your after the attack i was threatened on the air yesterday at the atf i area terrify racial stand is your home why

the program she appeared on hosted by campo built and john shambo is a staple of los angeles talk radio we make a left of every parent began united states will last four years and what you do or want washington monument the white was a family act like you have no problem hear outrage is an essential ingredient of the programming these people are right to be angry and indeed we lost thousands of people here and how easy it would be cute if you were angry should be allowed to express it on the public airways in america can angry words on the airwaves lead to angry actions that's what war is lieutenant joe and was very he heads a recently founded hate crimes unit of the la sheriff's department and it seems like the the media in and the talk show venue seems to be fueling a lot of this hostility and i think that they really need to to exercise some responsibility

here and rather than inflaming and i think that they need to be just a little bit more balanced and how they present this because right now the psyche of of our nation is just so fragile that really pulls little sparks could just read two major forest fires to prevent those fires from starting muslim leaders are trying to forge alliances with other groups we're all human beings and beyond that were also we americans were on wednesday they hosted an interfaith gathering at a mosque they're also discussing ways to show their support for that country organization and that should make it a a significant donation would cost of disaster relief there's a lot of organizations that i know isn't like that i think is only twenty one of them and i wonder like i really have been enough yet as muslims reject others there also wary about their own communities welfare and safety

he says most of them have the idea of us go out on the head and the other three the it to go out on the school even on this world and that my assistant on monday he wants to have home is very close as i went walking i was in june for protection muslims have turned to law enforcement police have responded with a visible presence at islamic events and buildings they are also responding to reports of harassment of people often confused with muslims like indians armenians and italian muslim activist omar ritchie has been heartened by support from local law enforcement iran the nation have been very proactive and a monumentally ivan ten years ago some point disavowed may not be in the same position i'm in that could've actually

been you know people being killed it was born seed oh she joined the nomination a prayer vigil outside pasadena city hall despite their anxieties muslims with their fellow american trained singing as you ride their countries ariadne and that brings us to some closing thoughts from our newshour essay is and to elizabeth barnes were and we'll hear now from our regular is there richard rodriguez of the pacific new service jim fisher formerly of the kansas city star new york writer roger rosenblatt los angeles writer entertainer fleming

and clarence page of the chicago tribune roger you wrote in the la times today that america faces the prospect of the abnormal so what we're used to as notice and i think that in many ways to the great crash of the last few years the last three days in addition to an enormous loss of life is a sense of a normal america the same time i think that the notion of terrorism this is is this should be more carefully examined that but the terrorism sees me a misnomer americans are not feeling terrified if i hear them correctly they're feeling anger and the feeling pain like no it's not terror and rather than the sense of the normal there is and i'm detecting a great hunger for the mundane forty four finishing a crossword puzzle for foreign water and along from for going back to work for be resolute in the midst of this extraordinary moment and to prove in some way that the mundane overrides the extraordinary measure how would you characterize what's happened these past few days once the quick change it's never going to

quite the same as it was this year thinking of each other thinking about a government that you know anybody we could find out find like little kids picking at the scab underneath i think thats all in the end i think you're probably going to see the country move to more than in the politically conservative attitude there were going to be were going to be the more conservative country we're going to be a lot more hard nosed clarence page more hard nosed you think that's how we're changing yes i think we are a lot like the apple first hijackings to cuba always some heavy metal detectors and airports and wife move beyond this became part of life we can barely recall those days we didn't have metal detectors at security should be ratcheted up i our interest in the rest of the world that are in our human intelligence will be ratcheted up and and we are entering a war make no mistake about that i would

characterize them this period and historically as the end of parks americana period that that began when the berlin wall fell the cold war ended and now we all for good reason celebrated a prosperous decade mbeki war crime war welfare rates but then we also became very complacent then i i think felt more secure than we should have obviously that security fell away or one world trade center i fell away and all life has changed but life will go on to write that we americans are gonna win this war it was a life changing for the good things that may come out of this elizabeth is that might spell the end of the age of irony for thirty years about as long as the twin towers stood the intelligentsia that has governed the cultural thinking of the country have told us that nothing with to be taken seriously nothing to be believed in nothing was real and it was reality for us we had real evil we have real enemies enemies regardless of the genocidal way as people to be eliminated death is real it's funny i am a television show or a

guy talks about talking to the other side and movies where people see dead people which is a way of saying that death is not to be taken seriously even death and grief grief israel and to be taken seriously and certainly we know the grief was real this week and what kind of changes are you seeing all the same pieces in the same that they're all speaking to are certainly that stunning realization that the we are no longer sacrosanct that people hate us that the oceans no longer protect us that we're a wholly different country i'm experiencing a vulnerability for the first time that i think none of us ever imagined part of that's tragic obviously the loss of life is hideously tragic i'm not sure that part of it isn't sort of along clarence lines are a sort of unwelcome wake up call from the enormous self absorption and sort of self trivial ization of the last ten years let's say you know a few months ago we were

following gary condit around you know with bated breath i think that's gone and hopefully will stay on for a good long time roger would strike she'll in what you're seeing and hearing and people's reactions you've been doing a call in show in a national public radio station has lived without in eastern long island in southern new england the public radio station i was on for four hours forty two days talking to ordinary folks and the it was it was saddening there was one woman who was in the twin towers and talk about the harrowing experience of escaping but most of the most of the conversations were absolutely enlightening and heartening fella carpenter wanted to know how to get to the city use his skills lots of people calling where to give blood most people calling just to express sympathy for people who had lost friends a friend of mine whose brother is a fireman lost ten people die in his battalion and call to talk

about that and i might say yeah in a situation like this where americans can touch one another they show themselves to be very very calm admirable indeed richard what strikes you in in people's reaction to something and what rogers talking about it seems to me that the communal feeling of america right now is most powerfully within the common hurt as we heard especially as we see the farm and the policeman in your that sense of sharing this common pain is is much wider it seems to me then the common anger in america but that said it seems to me that there is also a kind of tragic low that the pitfalls of these events are not hearing a kind of a con finance that this is going to be a decisive military action that were headed toward rather kind of tragic sense that that we are forced to do something that we know will not be final we see only too well in the israeli example of trying to make his counterterrorism that it leads to its own multiplicity of of violence one one and that leads to another and i but i think americans within this tragic sensibilities

feel an enormous sense of closeness which in my lifetime is is unprecedented prancing earlier remarks didn't sound like you have the same feeling about this tragic sensibility are you optimistic well i reported that that there's a sense of tragedy sorrow and anger and other anger is well directed as people look to think what was the force of the pain they were feeling right now and the public doesn't know what we haven't given much attention to iowa farm of and one of the to the various terrorist network tentacles around the planet afghanistan used to be a newsroom joke cup because americans have so consistently been isolationist not just in the recent period that fell away with medicare because of the world i understand on pearl harbor day most americans that know we're pearl harbor was but they knew it was an american possession and they felt attacked and certainly with thousands of american sailors than others who had died so that sense of tragedy was intense and americans pull together at times like

that when they see a comic fall out they're concentrating our minds if you will i see that now and i think that we're gonna learn fast on how to deal with this new threat and i think we're gonna win one and listening what strikes you about how people responded oh all again that says they need the extraordinary communal feeling on my remember a little bit i suppose during civil rights days in you know even a huge event and the women's movement i mean there was that sense of people coming together and nothing on this scale because the grief and so i think and for the sense of community but i do have a sense of you know halfway between the tragic in the optimistic as it were that the tragedy can inform the sense that we have to be different we have to pay attention to the globe not just at the moment when this fight and also a sense that maybe americans are willing to grow up but we dont need to adjust the way richard with that that we you know we're in it for the long haul and maybe it's our turn to be finely a much more grownup country with all the pain that has informed that growing up jim fischer how do you see what lies

ahead for the president and other top officials saying that this could demand what lies ahead could demand a lot of sacrifice from americans do think we're prepared for that sacrifice <unk> remember pearl harbor and i will not remember as a little boy the leap that the japanese or detected not unlikely some of these guard towers not know the actual quid pro quo but they could march sixteen miles they were tougher than americans they were smarter than they can do this they can be that we learned we learn very well i think what's really needed is maybe not anger but at a cold fury and what i think if you're a last longer than anger and i think people come out all right roger had you see the question of of our keep america's capability for sacrifice because that might be demanded now there's one thing americans are capable of everything our monday and refer back to that radio experience i was reminded often tearfully of what a beautiful

place this is our mouth and frankly talking about burkhardt new york from bucolic long island where everything is bright green and bright blue in the water is clear and everything feels so good about being an american and listening to those voices i had no doubt at all that this is the great a country as we have boys hope that big merger and inside which are which remain concerned now about well i say my main concern as well melissa my optimism because i have i've been a little bit too pessimistic it seems to me that and i think that one thing that the va i can see the bright spots from this calamity but it seems to me that the nation is united in my social class in a way that i did not see in vietnam we sent working class boys do to fight on our bottles and most of us didn't didn't text them the violence vietnam now with the world trade center what you saw was the ceo and the janitor i'm facing the same calamity in some sense terrorism devastate says

all but it also unites us all and it seems that that my optimism for them for the future is that i feel this this this vibration in america of an entire country from every level from every racial group every ethnic group a religious group feeling that we're in it together plants which are a main concern for the future in one of your columns this week he wrote about the need for a great patience now and the rape cases because we don't know this new enemy quote unquote fall within willapa one of the country and colin powell wisely and a vietnam veteran and he is it's going to go slow as he did in the desert shield buildup before desert storm saw this will be weeks before we see some deferred action it was i believe four months legend fisher and you remember better than big bubble or jimmy doolittle raid tokyo but that had a big morale boost that was the effect of four americans we are partnered up a wheel while for that morale boost in the meantime i am the fed and devastated by the anti arab backlash so before that you reported earlier understand that

at their abdomen of indignation bad role was killed this week in a gas station owner west because he looked a middle eastern oregon quote that's the kind of backlash that there's much of the best side of america i had hoped we'd go not more than that we obviously have not been nine nine percent of americans are better than that i think are our kids teach the rest areas and aarti thanks for being with us our team will see online and again here tomorrow evening out our regular time of course with our continuing coverage of the september eleventh tragedy and it's many many aftermaths i'm jim lehrer thank you and goodnight fb major funding for the newshour with jim lehrer has been provided by the world really not diminishing resources

remain call oh yeah nina you need to play the pittsburgh video cassettes of the newshour with jim lehrer are available from pbs video call one eight

hundred three to eight pbs won out our data fb fb