In a gratitude message posted to Substack newly independent journalist Jim Acosta (later CNN) referenced Dan Rather’s unforgettable interview on David Lettermen after 9/11

I found a clip of Rather remembering that moment that was quite vivid but could not find a clip from the actual interview.

What I did find was a transcript of Letterman’s monologue from that night. Right before the end, Letterman throws in a heartwarming story about a little town in Montana named Choteau. This is what he said:

“I’ll tell you about a thing that happened last night. There’s a town in Montana by the name of Choteau. It’s about a hundred miles south of the Canadian border. And I know a little something about this town. It’s 1,600 people. 1,600 people. And it’s an ag-business community, which means farming and ranching. And Montana’s been in the middle of a drought for… I don’t know… three years? And if you’ve got no rain, you can’t grow anything. And if you can’t grow anything, you can’t farm, and if you can’t grow anything, you can’t ranch, because the cattle don’t have anything to eat, and that’s the way life is in a small town. 1,600 people.

“Last night at the high school auditorium in Choteau, Montana, they had a rally — home of the Bulldogs, by the way — they had a rally for New York City. And not just a rally for New York City, but a rally to raise money… to raise money for New York City. And if that doesn’t tell you everything you need to know about the… the spirit of the United States, then I can’t help you. I’m sorry.”

Image of snow-frosted mountain in the Rocky range outside of Choteau Montana. The sun is low in the sky, perhaps just rising, and there is high contrast in purples and blues with the white, bright snow

The crowd applauded and I teared up reading it. But the reason for my tears was that I’m not so sure those small-town Montana residents could ever feel the same about New York City in post-Trump America. Has he destroyed our love for each other? Our ability to support the suffering and vulnerable through times of unfathomable crisis?

When the recent wildfires in California burned up so much of Los Angeles County, there were people who applauded to hear the “rich Hollywood liberal elites” had been punished (I’m not going to search X for lingering evidence – we all heard about these posts on social media if we didn’t see them first hand.) Of course, the reality is Altadena was a middle-class neighborhood – small homes in close proximity which helped the fire spread. No one deserves to suffer such a tragedy. How could they be so callous?

I’m not saying we should go back to 9/11 and press the reset button or anything but … we’ve been a kinder, more compassionate people in the past. That means we can get there again. I’m not going to tell other people how to behave but … I don’t think selling our souls to gain favor with the King is going to work out for anyone. -ag