9/11 poll: Majority say U.S. not back to normal

(CNN) -- With the one-year anniversary of the September 11 terrorist attacks approaching, a new poll indicates many Americans feel no lingering effects in their personal lives but they believe the country is not back to normal and may never return.

Thirty-one percent of those surveyed in the CNN/TIME magazine poll said the events of September 11 didn't affect them at all, while 11 percent said their lives were completely back to normal and 37 percent said their lives were somewhat back to normal. Twenty percent said their lives were not at all back to normal.

By contrast, 52 percent of respondents said things were not at all back to normal in the country as a whole and 4 percent said the country was completely back to normal. Forty-four percent found things somewhat back to normal, the poll said.

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When asked if things would ever be back to normal in the country, 54 percent said no. Thirty-two percent said they felt the same way about their personal lives, according to the poll.

Respondents said they continue to think about the terrorist attacks; 30 percent said they think about September 11 every day, 35 percent think about it once a week; and 27 percent think about it once a month. Eight percent said they think about September 11 "hardly ever" or "never."

When asked whether September 11 should be remembered every year as a national holiday, 44 percent said yes and 51 percent said no.

One big difference from a survey last fall is how people said they feel about the government's power to investigate U.S. citizens.

In the latest poll, 40 percent of those surveyed said the government should have more power to investigate its citizens, compared with 56 percent who felt that way when polled shortly after the attacks.

As for marking the one-year anniversary, 80 percent of respondents in the new poll said they plan to fly the U.S. flag, 77 percent said they would pray, and 68 percent plan to watch a television program about the terrorist attacks. Less than a third of respondents said they were worried about a terrorist attack happening this September 11.

A little more than a third of those surveyed said they consider their community a target for a terrorist attack, while 22 percent said their local police were prepared to prevent terrorism, the poll found.

The survey of 1,004 adult Americans was conducted August 28 and 29. It has a sampling error of plus or minus 3 percentage points.