Americans’ changing attitudes about 9/11

Among the recurring rituals entailed in commemorating 9/11 are polls on Americans’ attitudes about the event. Six weeks after the attack in 2001, a Rasmussen Reports survey found 57 percent of adults believing it had changed the country for the better. This year’s poll found just 21 percent holding this opinion, while 59 percent think 9/11 changed America for the worse. Another new poll, by Gallup, found women—especially those under 50—more likely than men to feel the terror attack “permanently changed” the way they live their own lives.