Back to Normal? Sure, If the Norm Is Scary

Pollsters like to ask people whether they think life has returned to normal since 9/11. Sensibly enough, their respondents have gotten beyond the notion that the attack was an abnormality in an otherwise benign world. In an Ipsos Public Affairs poll conducted for the Orlando Sentinel, just 12 percent of adults said they feel things have returned to normal. The same poll found a rise since October 2001 in the number of people who feel in personal physical danger from future attacks (from 15 percent then to 24 percent now).