Mattea Kramer and Jo Comerford

It's 2023 -- and this is America 10 years after the first across-the-board federal budget cuts known as sequestration went into effect.

Hollye Harrington Jacobs

Nurse, Social Worker, Educator, Author www.TheSilverPen.com

The important thing to know is that children take their coping cues from us, the trusted adults in their lives. This isn't to say that we should cover our emotions. Not at all. Rather, we need to model healthy coping mechanisms for our children.

Rep. Steny Hoyer and Rep. Barbara Lee

From infants to seniors, the sequester affects at-risk Americans in every age bracket, and its cuts will harm families trying to put food on the table. Simply put, the sequester will erect road blocks along the pathways out of poverty.

Jennifer Rowe Walters

Mother, Wife, Okie

Tornadoes. For me and my fellow Okies, it's probably one of the first words we hear as children. We play "tornado" with our friends. But this. This is something that no amount of experience, no ingrained, Okie-native understanding of the weather or geography can ever prepare you for.

Jeb Bush

Former governor of Florida

Most Americans agree that coming to the United States legally should be easier and with less cost than coming to the country illegally. Unfortunately, right now, that is not the case.

Beth Woolsey

Writer, humorist at the Five Kids Is A Lot of Kids blog

If you pay attention, kids will teach you how to laugh loudly, how to love deeply and how to live fully. They will also ruin all your stuff.

Jake Silverstein

Editor, Texas Monthly

Texas barbecue has no peer on earth. If you happen to be reading this in Texas, you may wonder why we need to state the obvious, but there are people who contend otherwise.

Peter Dreier and Richard Appelbaum

If journalism's role is to not only report the facts but also to expose wrongdoing, then the Times deserves kudos, and a Pulitzer Prize, for documenting and explaining the emergence of Bangladesh's new sweatshop economy as a major source of the clothing that American and European consumers buy every day.

Roya R. Rad, MA, PsyD

Faculty of psychology, ECPI University

At the end, positive thinkers are better problem solvers and have better interactions. In addition to that, people who are positive thinkers are happier and more satisfied with their life.

Grover Norquist

President, Americans for Tax Reform

America is the most immigrant-friendly nation in the world and we are also the richest; that is not a coincidence. Immigrants have been coming to our shores since the Pilgrims landed and they bring with them determination, innovation, and the entrepreneurial spirit that built this great nation.

Bernard-Henri Lévy

French philosopher and writer

Today's vandals, who might, God forbid, become tomorrow's terrorists, have no program whatsoever. They resemble the public hoodlums Nietzsche spoke of as the rising force in the great modern democratic cities, filling the lull with the simple rage to break the bonds among men.

Geoffrey R. Stone

Edward H. Levi Distinguished Service Professor of Law, University of Chicago

Striking the right balance between the government's legitimate need for confidentiality, the press's legitimate need to obtain information about government action, and the public's "right to know" what its representatives are up to, is a difficult and delicate task.

Jeanne Bishop

Murder victims' family member

Two elementary schools had been hit by the level EF4 storm. Children were dead. Parents who flocked to the school were reportedly kept away from the perimeter so that rescuers could hear any voices that might be crying for help. My first thought as I surveyed the rubble was, Why?

Andrew Yang

Founder and CEO, Venture for America

Our young people desperately want the chance to participate in and lead our nation's economic and cultural revival. They're up for the challenges that they're going to inherit. It only remains for us to present the path to address them.

Aaron Gouveia

Blogger, The Daddy Files

Guys see the low bar set for dads on commercials and TV shows and will only rise high enough to meet it. And when their wives dress the baby in a shirt that basically calls them idiots, they'll soon learn they're expected to be know-nothing dolts, so there's no need to improve.

Marlo Thomas

Award-winning actress, author and activist

I am an unrepentant news junkie. If I'm not getting the latest stories online, I 'm hearing them blaring from the TV in the next room. And have I introduced you to my husband, Phil? He makes me look uninformed. So, between the two of us, we're practically a 24-hour cable news station.

Elliott Negin

Director of News & Commentary, Union of Concerned Scientists

Despite the fact that more journalists are now aware of the Koch brothers, many still miss the fact that Americans for Prosperity is just one of approximately 40 think tanks and advocacy groups the Kochs underwrite to promote their climate and energy agenda.

Bill Rosendahl

Los Angeles City Council member for the 11th District

I walking more freely and faster without assistance. I can sit longer than five minutes without pain. I'm getting pretty close to feeling like the old Bill Rosendahl.

Lisa Belkin

Senior Columnist on Life/Work/Family, The Huffington Post

In my nightmares, I can't get to my children. The parents of the Plaza Towers Elementary School in Moore, Oklahoma are living that nightmare.

Arianna Huffington

Sunday, I gave the commencement address to Smith College's class of 2013, urging them to lead the third women's revolution by redefining success, so that all of us -- women and men -- can live our lives with more grace, more joy, more empathy, more gratitude, and yes, more love.

Edit Schlaffer

Founder, Women Without Borders/SAVE

Security is one of the last bastions of male dominance with the main focus being intelligence, military operations and law enforcement. Yet mothers are strategically located at the core of their families and are therefore typically the first to deal with their children's fear, resignation, frustration and anger.

Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf and Dr. Mark Dybul

As a global community, our fates are often more intertwined than we like to imagine. Controlling malaria isn't only a prospect of preventing needless deaths, it is an economic imperative.

Fr. Gary M. Meier

Author, 'Hidden Voices, Reflections of a Gay, Catholic Priest'

At the heart of every authentic call to ministry is the desire to live a life of integrity. It was my desire to live a life of integrity that led me to the priesthood and it is that same desire that has led me to where I am today.

John R. Talbott

Author, 'Survival Investing: How to Prosper Amid Thieving Banks and Corrupt Governments'

Let us all pray for our fellow Americans suffering in Oklahoma. And let us pray that we are able to differentiate between unavoidable disastrous acts of God and those invented much closer to home that we should have some control over. And let us pray for the children.

Shirin Sadeghi

Independent TV & Radio Host, ex-BBC & Al Jazeera

What the huge disqualifications do tells us is that the Supreme Leader and his hardline establishment are flexing their muscles for anyone who's looking for trouble at this year's presidential election.

Marcus Williamson

Adjunct professor of political science, Oklahoma City University

Tornadoes do not leave an identity to define our sorrow and struggle around, and closure cannot be as complete. They only leave destruction before pulling back and vanishing into the sky. This ability to turn the lack of closure into a passion to improve is what sets Oklahomans apart.

Robert Scheer

Editor, Truthdig.com; Author, 'The Great American Stickup'

Shredding privacy is the essence of Tumblr's appeal to Yahoo, and even though it has said it will retain the social networking site's founders in key positions, one way or another that very personal data will be mined and inevitably fall into what users will discover to be the wrong hands.

Julie Upton

Registered dietitian; Co-author, 'The Real Skinny: Appetite for Health’s 101 Fat Habits & Slim Solutions'

I travel a lot for work and often find myself in airports and in unfamiliar cities wondering where and what I can eat that will fill me up, not out. Since eating out makes it harder to keep your daily calories in check, you have to learn how to dodge the calorie minefields in restaurant menus.

Adam Banner

Criminal Defense Attorney

I was born and bred in Oklahoma. I make my living as an Oklahoma criminal defense attorney. Tornadoes have been a part of my entire life. Hell, my high school mascot was a "red tornado."