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Voices of Reflection: The Last Normal Day
What America Was Doing on September 10, 2001
 Listen to Andy Bowers' report.
Tess, born to Sean and Shannon Andrews on Sept. 10, 2001.
Photo: Sean Andrews
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Andrew Canning was supposed to be at a meeting on the 105th floor of the World Trade Center the morning of Sept. 11, but had plane difficulties in Chicago on Sept. 10, so he wasn't there when his Aon Risk Management co-workers and clients were killed.
Photo courtesy of Andrew Canning
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Top Headlines from Sept. 10, 2001
• Religious Clashes Between Muslims and Christians in Jos, Nigeria (NPR)
• Eight Killed by Arab Militants in Israel (NPR)
• Capitol Hill Suggests Plans to Stimulate Economy (NPR)
• Powell to Attend Meeting of Organization of American States in Peru (NPR)
• Marxist Daniel Ortega Leading Candidate in Nicaraguan Elections (NPR)
• Afghanistan: Taliban Denies Involvement in Suicide Bombing Attack (NPR)
• Fear of Recession Ignites Discussion of More Tax Cuts (New York Times)
• Tough U.S. Visa Policy Riles Shut-Out Scholars in China (New York Times)
• Belarus Leader Claims Big Election Victory, but Many Doubt It (New York Times)
• Campaigning for Mayor; Confronting the Economy's Future and Media Rumors (New York Times)
• Energy-Industry's Links to Regulators, Administration Worry Environmentalists (Washington Post)
• Who Should a Williams Root For? In Venus-Serena Match, It's Hard to Take Sides (Washington Post)
• Local Stocks Fall On Reports of Weak Economy (Washington Post)
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Carlene Mendieta re-enacting Amelia Earhart's first transcontinental flight in the same type of plane period clothes, Sept. 10, 2001.
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Sept. 10, 2002 -- Most Americans remember exactly what they were doing on Sept. 11, 2001. But what about the day before? No one could know, of course, that Sept. 10 was the last day of an era -- the day before America was permanently altered.
NPR's Andy Bowers examined that day for Morning Edition, and found that on a global, national and personal level, Sept. 10 was, in many respects, the last normal day.
President Bush's approval rating hovered just above 50 percent, close to that of his father, George Bush Sr., Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton at the same point in their terms.
Congressional Democrats chose Sept. 10 to begin an assault on Bush's foreign policy, particularly his plans for a missile defense shield. Sen. Joseph Biden (D-Del.) led the campaign. "Even the joint chiefs say a strategic nuclear attack is less likely than a regional conflict, a major theater war, terrorist attacks at home or abroad, or any number of other issues," he said.
Also that day, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld declared war on an enemy he claimed was as serious a threat as the old Soviet Union -- the Pentagon bureaucracy. The war lasted 24 hours.
In Afghanistan, the trial of eight foreign missionaries accused of proselytizing continued. That and the assassination of Northern Alliance leader Ahmed Shah Masood had given Afghanistan an unusual amount of news coverage in the United States.
But the biggest news stories continued to be the twin media obsessions of that summer: shark attacks and Gary Condit.
Novelist and mother Susan Straight wrote an article that appeared in the Los Angeles Times on Sept. 10 describing the "bubble-wrapping" of children, and the danger that over-protection might mean kids weren't learning to take risks. Now, she says, parents are even more protective thanks in part to the fact that much of the media has given terrorism and war second-tier status behind this summer's obsession: abducted children. She thinks the theme is linked to Sept. 11.
"It's the fear that there are people walking among us who look really like we do, but they are really strangers that want to harm us," she says.
Sept. 10 may have been "normal," but that doesn’t mean it wasn't special for many people, in a normal kind of way. In a Rhode Island hospital, software engineer Sean Andrews' wife Shannon was in labor, and there were complications. The baby's heart rate wasn't normal. A C-section was performed, and mother and baby are fine. Andrews was relieved and elated -- until the next day, when he realized that his child would have to endure the same kinds of fears and insecurities he grew up with.
"It seemed when the Cold War ended, the fear that terrible things could happen on such a huge scale had passed," he says. And yet, "I was also more immediately concerned with, you know, how do I change her diaper, how do we give her a bath?"
Also on Sept. 10, California periodontist Carlene Mendieta re-enacted Amelia Earhart's first transcontinental flight -- using the same type of plane and wearing period clothes. The next morning, she taxied onto the runway to resume her tour. "The tower called and said the airways had all been closed," she says. She couldn’t resume for 11 more days -- but she did finish the flight, as much out of defiance as anything else.
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