9/11 trauma persists five years later

NEW YORK (CNN) -- As his cab wound through the narrow streets toward Ground Zero, Henry Pitkin recalled the day his city was attacked.

"There's a hole in my soul," the longtime cabbie said, his New York accent slightly cracking as he stared at the street dead ahead. "I knew people who lost people. ... I've never recovered."

Five years after the terror attacks of September 11, 2001, killed 2,973 in Shanksville, Pennsylvania, Washington D.C., and New York, the country's mood is awash in emotions, balancing resolve with vulnerability, a need to remember with a desire to move on.

The nation appears united in acknowledging the threat it faces yet divided in how to best combat it. Consumers say they are not confident of the direction of the economy in this unsettled era yet economists say they spend beyond their means.

There is wide agreement of the trauma the attacks caused, yet there is disagreement over the symbolism of the event and how it should be used, according to historians.