You saw an outpouring of people closing their businesses and walking alongside their employees. It was a great unity.

It makes absolutely no sense to go after these working people in the name of homeland security when they all know they had absolutely nothing whatsoever to do with 9/11 or any type of terrorist activity in this country.

Unfortunately, California and some of the other states couldn't put it together until later.

We respect their right to show unity, but our focus is on what's right for our Chicago employees and their wages and benefits packages.

I still have two employees and a colleague, the judge, who are held hostage. I have other people who came into my office with the idea that they were going to be safe. I'm not leaving until this is resolved.

We just feel fortunate to have those people in the organization. There are a great many city employees that do that kind of work. And they are using their own vacation time, which is a sacrifice for them but very admirable.