Choteau

Excerpt from David Letterman’s first monologue following the 9/11 attacks

“There’s a town in Montana by the name of Choteau. It’s about 100 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 the small town…1,600 people.

Last night [2001] at the high school auditorium in Choteau, Montana they had a rally for New York City. And not just a rally for New York City — a rally to raise money — a rally to raise money for New York City. And, and if that doesn’t tell you everything you need to know about the spirit of the United States then I can’t help you.”