A woman can dream, right?
I can't even guess the percentage of people who were drawn together. We live in a decent sized city with various groups. I know where I was born it would have been UNITED!!!!!!!!! Here? My Muslim friends felt scared, my pacifist friends felt like an outsider and some people were just confused.
A group of friends of mine were all discussing it - some ultra conservatives and some more "crunchy and peaceful" types. I was surprised how many people said they didn't feel the unity. I would imagine like me, after stating my feelings once or twice, they just shut up about the feelings inside because the backlash was fierce.
So honestly it would be really hard to guess IMO, the amount of people who were not feeling very welcome here. It would have been pretty much impossible to know back then because no one would report about people who didn't feel welcome or united. It would be written off as "look at those crazy Un-American people"
Not saying that a lot of the country was united, but I don't think it was near as much as people think it was. Particularly if you are a WASPy type who doesn't mind wars for things like that. I say WASP only to emphasize non-Muslim or those who do not look 'middle eastern' because I can tell you that those who looked remotely Muslim weren't feeling the love. I can even tell you traveling with a non-European last name that isn't very common even in the Latin world opened my eyes to things. When your last name starts just like others of a type that people are scared of, you do always get extra screening at airports.
So that's a ramble but I think perspectives might be different based on who you are an how you feel.
I have a feeling more people were afraid to say they were against the "War on Terror" than were willing to say... but again I know too many pacifists so I am just more aware of it.
