let's bring in george gaulrapp, the mayor of freeport, illinois, and john nichols, washington correspondentf "the nation" magazine and author of the book "uprising." >> how you doing, ed? >> well, i'm doing great, but, you know, i don't feel good. i don't feel good being here visiting with these people knowing what they got to go through. what's it like? >> i wish you were here on better terms, ed. we have a company, we have a building, 200,000 square foot building a half mile from here, tristar metals purchased it in, put in machinery. they have employees there. 98 employees. they're going to increase employment. next to it, snack king, they're adding 70,000 square feet of production and employee room. the reason they did this, ask jay mendell, president of tristar metals, because we have some of the best workers around. they're great workers. so why is it we have tremendous workers here who can compete globally, are intelligent, hardworking, great work ethics, why are they losing their jobs? >> john, what's happening across america? is freeport a microcosm of what's going on? >> every sta