The type of unity America had after 9/11 went away after the 2003 Iraq War and America will never be unified again like it was on 9/11. We have become so divided as a society that there is no going back.
Having a credible external threat is a great way to bolster internal unity, but the terrorists were no Nazi Germany or Soviet Union. The Iraq War was a grossly misguided bust, and Afghanistan lost its importance after Osama was killed. The only really credible threat we have now is China and China has done a good job sowing internal dissension within the U.S. The threat posed by Putin has become much less credible with how poorly Putin's invasion of Ukraine has gone for Russia, and proxy wars in which U.S. lives are directly at stake aren't really good for bolstering national unity to begin with. Plus, the internal problems of the U.S. that have grown exponentially since 2021 -- inflation, economic instability, rising fuel costs -- are souring people on spending money on foreign wars where U.S. interests are unclear.
“We don’t have democrats or republicans anymore. We have Americans”. Damn I wish that was still true. It’s 2023 and the country is as divided as ever to a sickening degree.
There’s an interesting clip on RU-vid with Musical Director Kevin Eubanks talking about this episode - - and the musical decisions that were made after 9/11. He is a gem, a compassionate and talented American. 🇺🇸 Thank you
Man... what a legend. I've watched Leno since before I was a teenager (and I'm 41 now) and this is the first time I've seen this. After watching hours upon hours of Leno joking around about literally everything and then watching him be somber ... he's such a good guy
Thank you for posting this. Leno's thoughts, Kevin Eubanks' own thoughts, John McCain, Crosby, Stills and Nash....we needed this at the time, and we still need it. We are ALL Americans, still. We can never forget this happened.
All in all, I always respected Jay Leno as a host. He poked shots at both sides. He never turned his show into something one sided like a Stephen Colbert
I was listening to Howard that day and it was a heartwrenching day. So different from what was the usual broadcast but a moment in time, historic, being conveyed by a passionate American and New Yorker. Radio history, broadcast history! It needs to be heard.
Everybody at The Tonight Show with Jay Leno were probably scared as hell to be there that night. Just simply being inside that studio for them was a big step. o.o
I'm sorry they had to blank out that wonderful "My Country 'Tis Of Thee" at the end. That was one of the finest things I have ever heard from these three amazing men.
Our country united like never before following 9/11. It was incredible seeing American flags on homes and politics stepped aside for a common goal. I fear that if a disaster like this happened today, it would only cause more division in our country. I don't know what it would take to unite our country again like it once was.
Seeing Senator McCain come out and be introduced by Leno as decent just keeps me thinking about when the senator passed the word that kept being said over and over by friends and opponents was “decent” Not the “decent” as he was not great but better than average but the decent that he was a genuinely kind person who wouldn’t let rhetoric and emotion get in the way just to win or get ahead. The fact he specifically wanted Obama to perform a eulogy says all I need to know. And of course during this appearance the same is openly apparent.
I have to admit that sometimes I watch McCains concession speech when I need a pallet cleanser with all the political division these days… If you haven’t seen it you should definitely watch it… He handled it with class and forbid the crowd from booing Obama
It would be kinda nice if they allowed the entire episode of The Late Show 9/17/01 to stay on without it being pulled down. Guess Dave and Dan's conversation was hitting a bit too close to the mark, as you can only find fragments of the episode on YT. It's too bad, I thought it was literally Dave's finest hour.
I deployed right after 9/11. We were watching Leno and that had someone from every branch on the show. They were doing a game where the men had to to drill and ceremony. The very first one Jay goes "attention!!" Everyone but the Soldier went to attention and he got kicked off!!! We were all screaming about he just won the entire thing because there was no predatory command!! The right way it should have been done was Jay would say "Group! Attention!" There is a predatory command then the command of execution. That still bugs me to this day 🤣🤣
@@haashemmalik216 Afghanistan twice, Kosovo twice, Kuwait once. I was stationed at Fort Drum, Vicenza Italy, Fort Stewart, Fort Lewis, Wiesbaden Germany, I'm now at Fort McCoy.
I agreed with Senator McCain back then about most Muslim people are good people and want to live their lives in peace and take care of their families just like the rest of us. In WW2 the US government under FDR gathered up all the Americans of Japanese descent and put the in camps, they called them internment camps but they were still prisoners in prison camps regardless of what they were called. It was a terrible thing to do to Americans only because they looked different. FDR didn’t round up all the Americans of German or Italian decent. Why not? Because they looked like every other American. I only blame the terrorist that caused 9/11 . It’s been 22 years now and anytime I watch a video or even think about what happened that day to the innocent in New York , Washington DC at the Pentagon, on flight 93 in Pennsylvania and all of our soldiers in the subsequent war on terror makes me just as angry and sad as on that clear blue sunny morning in September of 2001. Never forget!
To show that the Capitol ordeal wasn't in the same class as 9/11, you didn't have Jimmy Fallon and others take a week off during early to mid January 2011. You didn't have the NFL or the NBA push games back a week. The Capitol ordeal was bad. It wasn't 9/11 or Pearl Harbor bad.
