Our nation honors its unbroken line of fallen heroes - and I see many of them in the audience here today.

We do have to balance this issue of privacy and security. Those who pretend that there's no balance that has to be struck and think we can take a 100-percent absolutist approach to protecting privacy don't recognize that governments are going to be under an enormous burden to prevent the kinds of terrorist acts that not only harm individuals, but also can distort our society and our politics in very dangerous ways.

The truth is that America has been closely divided politically for quite some time. That was reflected in some of the challenges I had with the Republican Congress.

There are some exceptions: Chicago, my hometown, in particular. But overall in the country this is a much safer place than it used to be.

There's no straight line to progress.

What drags down our entire economy is when there's an ever-widening chasm between the ultra-rich and everybody else.

I see tragedy and comedy and pain and irony and all that stuff. But in the end I think life is fascinating, and I think people are more good than bad, and I think that the possibilities of prog­ress are real.