U.S. attitudes on Sept. 11 events shifting

NEW YORK, Sept. 10 (UPI) -- Attitudes in the United States are beginning to change about Tuesday's sixth anniversary of terror attacks in New York and Washington, USA Today reported.

While events around the country are scheduled to mark the occasion in which four hijacked aircraft were used to kill some 3,000 people on Sept. 11, 2001, a poll conducted for the newspaper found just 6 percent of people plan to observe it formally.

Another 71 percent said they would observe it informally.

"Like any event, even Pearl Harbor, the more time goes by, the less central it becomes to our experience," Robert Thompson, a Syracuse University professor who studies U.S. popular culture, told the newspaper. "That's healthy. It becomes more a part of history, less a raw wound."

Louise Hughes of Sayreville, N.J., whose 24-year-old son Bobby was one of the 2,749 people killed at the World Trade Center in New York said a change was expected.

"I'm not worried that the focus will shift. I expect it to," Hughes said to USA Today. "You can't understand something like this unless you're truly involved in it."