THE NEWSPAPER HEADLINES and the TV special-report titles were full of gross overgeneralizations about the entire nation’s mood: “America Heals.” “A Nation Years for Normality.” “Country Demands Action.”

I’ve got a gross overgeneralization of my own to offer: America Wants an Aspirin and a Hot Water Bottle.

AUTUMNAL CLOUDS and cool temperatures arrived Sunday, and are quite welcome. Don’t like it? Go to Florida.

DAVID LETTERMAN GAVE an amazing eight-minute speech tonight, on his first new show since the attacks. It was the most consistently sincere moment of his 20-year hosting career, and may indeed have signaled the end of the Age of Irony.

Dan Rather’s on with Letterman as I write this, and he’s giving a brutally pro-war sermon, pleading with the nation to gird its collective loins and gather the “staying power” to unquestioningly support whatever follows, including ground-troop invasions in multiple countries. That, he claims, will prove the nation’s mettle. As you may have discerned, I have a slightly different belief–that following the same path and strategy for years on end, no matter the results or lack of results, is one of the the Vietnam debacle’s top contributing factors.

I’m recalling the last lines of Letterman’s opening speech, in which he said the most important thing anyone can have is courage. It’ll take courage to call for a less visceral, more thoughtful response to the terror–not because we don’t support our country but because we do, and we want it to do the right thing.