Coping with fear

But Henning doesn't see it that way. "Worried? No. I'm just hoping we get a win," he says.

Call it denial or being grounded, his feelings are echoed down the line of cars as fans toss footballs or sit talking under makeshift tents. Walking through the lot, breathing in air tinged with the smell of lighter-fluid-doused charcoal, nothing feels very different than it did before the Twin Towers and the Pentagon were attacked. Conversations are about work or this year's beleaguered Skins squad. "At least the US can mount an offense," one fan jokes.

For Henning, the memories of Sept. 11 are particularly strong. He works in Arlington, Va., at the USA Today building, not far from the Pentagon. When Flight 77 hit, his windows rattled, and he went outside to get a better view.

Still, he feels relatively unaffected. After the tragedy, he continues to ride the Metro, Washington's subway system. He says it's probably safer than using the area's highways, "considering the way people drive around here."

As the nation's media have focused on fear, it is this larger perspective that has been largely lost. Metro's weekday ridership is essentially unchanged after the Sept. 11 tragedy, as is the ridership of San Francisco's BART system. Even in New York, where stations were closed and trains were rerouted, subway ridership is back where it was before the terrorist attacks.

Polls about fear also tend to downplay how many Americans seem unshaken. Immediately after the attacks, a Gallup poll showed 58 percent of Americans feared being the victim of a terrorist. But that still meant that after the most deadly terrorist attack in the history of the US, more than 40 percent of Americans were largely unafraid.

Today, even amid the anthrax attacks, that number is down precipitously - only 34 percent of Americans are very or somewhat worried that they or a family member will be exposed to anthrax, Gallup reports.

Many of those who say they are unafraid do not talk or act like people in denial, and there is reason to believe that the US - like the nations that faced such challenges before it - will eventually adjust. In some ways, Americans may be better for it.

"I believe this will be a more mentally healthy culture than it was before Sept. 11," says Dr. Smith of the National Naval Medical Center. "We lost some freedoms that day. We lost the freedom of fear of dying, and the freedom of fear of our own mortality. But those aren't necessarily bad things. People are more aware of their lives now."

Ms. Hoffman, the St. Andrews parishioner, says her thoughts have been turning to a scene from a movie in which a group of people are crossing a rickety bridge. One character says she fears the bridge will collapse. Another character tells her they can't control whether they will live or die; they can only control whether they will be afraid if and when it collapses.

"I think of that and I guess my answer is, I pick unafraid," Hoffman says.

Religion is 'very important' to 65 percent of Americans, the highest number in 36 years, according to Gallup.

31 percent of Americans have or are considering buying extra bottled water to prepare for a terrorist attack, a Time/CNN poll shows.

New prescriptions for antidepressants such as Prozac increased 16 percent in the last two weeks of September.

17 percent of Americans are considering buying a gas mask, a Time/CNN poll shows.

People living in the East feel more worried than people in the rest of America. A Gallup polls shows 20 percent of Easterners are 'very worried,' compared with 15 percent of Southerners and Midwesterners – and only 6 percent of Westerners.

Ridership on the subways in San Fransisco, Washington, and New York is at pre-Sept. 11 levels.

Only 34 percent of Americans are very or somewhat worried that they will be exposed to anthrax, Gallup reports.

Sales of the Bible are up 20 percent to 40 percent , according to a leading Bible publisher.

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