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.

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?

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.

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.

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.

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."

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.

Ian Reifowitz

Author of 'Obama’s America: A Transformative Vision of Our National Identity'

As Europe reminds us, it prevents recession-battered economies from growing. The alternative is to prime the economic pump by having governments engage in fiscal and monetary stimulus.

A-Trak

DJ & Producer

I don't know anything about drugs. Never tried them. Yet as I write this, I am trying to sign a group with a song called "Bath Salts" and an album titled "D.R.U.G.S."

Paul Abrams

Last person on Earth not on Facebook

Ending oil industry subsidies to pay for clean-up and restitution from a climate catastrophe feels fitting. It will raise the money to satisfy Coburn, and make a point that cannot be overemphasized.

Barbara Hannah Grufferman

Author, 'The Best of Everything After 50'; Columnist, AARP; Host, AARP YouTube Channel

A few years ago -- around the time I was turning 50 and trying to come to grips with the changes my body, mind and life were going through -- I decided to start running, against my better judgment.

Mike Hogan

Executive Arts and Entertainment Editor, The Huffington Post Media Group

Petty's voice has never been conventionally pretty, but it's well preserved, and he sounds great sneering over all those chiming Telecaster chords and squealing Les Paul riffs. He also looks better than ever, thanks to some bold but effective fashion choices and a beard that nicely softens his beaky features.

Timothy Kurek

Author, 'The Cross in the Closet'

In a country that is increasingly polarized politically and religiously, it's always a breath of fresh air to encounter a group or a movement that strays from the social norm. Enter the Facebook page/movement "The Christian Left."

Eddie Kuspiel

Show of Force production assistant

Right then and there my hormone-infested, self-absorbed, juvenile brain realized: My mother's sole purpose in life was not to accommodate mine, but that she in fact, had one of her own.

Suzanne Perryman

Blogger at SpecialNeedsMom.com

Adults are really good at understanding the thoughts of others. Children -- not so much. Rebecca Saxe tells us the part of the brain responsible for thinking about others' minds reaches maximum growth during adulthood.

Nick Chipman

DudeFoods.com

Now, I'm definitely not the first person to make a Bacon Weave Taco, but the problem with most of the ones I've seen is that they just didn't look appetizing.

Adam Grant

Wharton professor and author, 'Give and Take'

Intelligence and concern for others often go hand in hand. This doesn't mean it's wise to give away the farm. The key is to use our brainpower to make sure that our contributions to others don't come at the expense of our own interests.

Richard C. Levin

President of Yale University

We leave together. You leave Yale College after four years; I leave the Yale Presidency after twenty. I find myself thinking about a Grateful Dead song written in 1970, the year I came to Yale as a graduate student. You know the words: "Lately it occurs to me, what a long, strange trip it's been." It's been a long trip, but, for us, more wonderful than strange.

Desmond Tutu, Sohaila Abdulali and Jacob Lief

Yes, governments must step up. But so should we all. Why shouldn't rape be dinner table conversation? We talk about war, we talk about death, we discuss values with our children. But on the subject of sexual assault, we remain silent and squeamish.