Americans React to the 9/11 Attacks (2001)

Tonight OnQ, correspondent Michael Bartley talks with local people who say their conflicting feelings will linger for years to come. Some of life in Pittsburgh at the end of a horrifying week. Shopping for groceries in the Strip District, luncheon conversation with friends, taking in the latest news. Children walking home from school, a flag at half staff, and in the distance, a commercial plane finally back in the air. By appearance, maybe, life looks to be getting back to usual. Yeah, I don't think we'll ever be the same again. I was just shocked.

They killed our women and children. Cut them all, God. In our minds, life is changed, and will be anything but usual for a long, long time. I like, I'm going to wake up and think, you know, no, that was just a nightmare. It didn't happen, but it did. And down the street, that lingering mental misery turns to frustration, where many Pittsburghers came to buy American flags. I don't know that I want a decoration. I want to do something more. Only to find out, you are sold out of American flags. Sold out. The only thing we have are some decorations. We have some wind socks, some house decorations, and that's it. A local clergyman said what happened on Tuesday was a tragedy that collectively broke the hearts of Pittsburghers and people all around the country. We haven't begun. We're still numb.

Father Scott Seethaler says healing from the terror will take time a lot of time. All around Pittsburgh this week churches were filled. People turned to their respective faiths for answers. Seethaler believes they got some good answers. Well, the reason why we can go on living with hope and not give into the bullies, because they want us to live in fear, is that the final victory is ours. God sits upon his throne. A people of faith will appreciate this. I know the end of the story. We won. This was just a temporary setback. The forces of evil will never win. It's horrible. It needs to be stopped. It needs to be dealt with here and now. People like Joy Carnes of Munhall, at least, got relief this week. Her brother David, a financial consultant and ex-Marine living in the New York area went into ground zero to help with the recovery effort Tuesday night. He heard voices from under the rubble, but couldn't call emergency crews on his cell phone

as phone service in New York was jammed. So he called back to Munhall to his sister Joy, who called 911 in Pittsburgh. The emergency operator here faxed the information to New York and David Carnes' information led to the rescue of two Port Authority police officers. I knew that I had to help him. I just didn't know how to do it from so far away, but I guess my nursing background just kicked in and I walked through it and did what I could and then once they were rescued, I knew it had worked. But yet so many others, thousands of others looking for the missing, only hope for relief. So he was definitely there. So if anybody knows anything, please, his wife and his mother and the rest of us are all waiting to hear. My brother was on that floor. I have a brother-in-law still that's missing. So what is the average Pittsburgher, the average American in any neighborhood thinking about in terms of what we should do next?

Well, national polls indicate an overwhelming majority of people support military retaliation. And the opinions here in the Pittsburgh area are consistent with that. The majority of people we talked to say they want action. Every country that harbors terrorists, level and made into a parking lot. We find out who did it, definitely, let's take action. Definitely. I don't know. If killing other people is the answer, but we definitely need to retaliate some way. They're going on a Harley-Davidson motorcycle. What they did was despicable, and we shouldn't wait too long to retaliate. The end of a terrible week in Pittsburgh, in America, where life is changed. You know, on my way to work today,

I saw a flag on just about every home, they were on cars. I even saw one on a baby carriage. And there's great comfort in that show of solidarity. And as you just saw, there's also comfort in talking it out.