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After a week-long hiatus following the terrorist attacks, David Letterman returned to the airwaves on Sept. 17. He skipped his usual opening monologue, instead offering his thoughts on the tragedy and a tribute to New York's residents, policemen, firefighters, and Mayor Rudy Giuliani. This is what he said:

"If we are going to continue to do shows, I just need to hear myself talk for a few minutes. It's terribly sad here in New York. We've lost 5,000 fellow New Yorkers and you can feel it. You can feel it, you can see it. It's terribly sad. Terribly, terribly sad. Watching all of this, I wasn't sure that I should be doing a television show, because for 20 years, we've been in this city, making fun of everything, making fun of the city. ... So to come to this circumstance that is so desperately sad, I don't trust my judgment in matters like this. 

"The reason I am doing a show and the reason I am back to work is because of Mayor Giuliani. From early on, after the attack, Mayor Giuliani encouraged us and lately implored us to go back to our lives and continue trying to make New York City the place that it should be. Because of him, I am here tonight. I just want to say one other thing about Mayor Giuliani. As this began ... and you weren't sure how to behave, all you had to do was watch the Mayor. Watch how this guy behaved. Watch how this guy conducted himself, watch what this guy did. Listen to what this guy said. Rudolph Giuliani is the personification of courage. There is only one requirement for any of us, and that is to be courageous, because courage defines all other human behavior. I believe pretending to be courageous is just as good as the real thing. He's an amazing man, and far, far better than we could have hoped for. To run the city in the midst of this obscene chaos and attack and also demonstrate human dignity — my God, who can do that? That's a pretty short list.

"The reason we were attacked, the reason these people are missing and dead, they weren't doing anything wrong. They were living their lives, they were going to work, they were traveling, they were doing what they normally do. As I understand it — and my understanding of this is vague at best — another group of people stole some airplanes and crashed them into buildings. We are told that they were zealots fueled by religious fervor. And if you live to be 1,000 years old, will that make any sense to you? Will that make any goddamn sense?"