Jim Wallis

Christian leader for social change; Author, 'On God’s Side: What Religion Forgets and Politics Hasn’t Learned About Serving the Common Good'

On Tuesday, the Senate Judiciary Committee approved a new comprehensive immigration reform bill with a bipartisan vote. It isn't perfect, but the key elements that many of us have been fighting for are intact. That really is a triumph of the common good.

Dr. Jill Biden

Second Lady of the United States

This Memorial Day, I hope you will take a moment to offer your own gesture of thanks to our men and women serving abroad and at home, as well as their families, and take a moment to honor the service men and women who have made the ultimate sacrifice.

William Astore

Writer, Professor, Retired Lt. Colonel, Air Force

For our children and their children, Memorial Day weekend may become a time to reflect on another loved one lost: Mother Earth.

Bob Burnett

Berkeley writer, retired Silicon Valley executive

Despite years of torment, each new season Charlie Brown finds a reason to believe that Lucy will hold the ball down where he can kick it. But this never happens. Sound familiar? It's the story of Barack Obama and the Republican Congress.

Michelangelo Signorile

Editor-at-large, HuffPost Gay Voices

Continuing to ban lesbian den mothers and gay scoutmasters is sending a horrible message to American youth, including the scouts, gay and straight. The Boy Scouts of America made this change to take some of the heat off, and no matter what equality advocates hope for, that will happen.

Lee Woodruff

Co-author, 'In an Instant', Author, 'Perfectly Imperfect', Author, 'Those We Love Most'

On Memorial Day, we'll remember those who died in service to our country. But this year, my thoughts are also with our injured service members and their families -- the folks who carry the biggest burden when loved ones return, different, broken, hurting.

Jordan Haedtler

Campaign associate, Forecast the Facts

With each pipeline that is approved, each greenlight given to coal and natural gas exports, we're putting more bullets in the chamber, and doubling down on our dangerous game of 13 Tzameti.

Richard Zombeck

Founder, Home Preservation Network at www.hpnhelp.com

Lew was offered a $940,000 bonus from Citigroup if he could land a job in government. That's one hell of a carrot. And here he is interviewing for Geithner's job.

Christopher Holshek

Col. (ret.), U.S. Army Civil Affairs; Civil-Military Strategic Analyst, Wikistrat; Senior Fellow, Alliance for Peacebuilding

Democratizing service and sacrifice would revitalize the meaning of citizenship, regenerate the civil-military relationship, and introduce an inclusiveness to help us find a more common basis of strength in our dangerously divided nation.

Scott Paul

President, Alliance for American Manufacturing

Sooner or later, these spectacles will lose their excitement and Capitol Hill will come back to this reality: The economy is still broken. So why not start fixing it now?

Dan Kennedy

Assistant professor, School of Journalism, Northeastern University; author, 'The Wired City'

With the BSA finally dragging itself into the late 20th century, can the 21st be far behind? The answer, I hope, is that the time to end discrimination has arrived. But it isn't going to be accomplished without a lot of strife.

Robert L. Borosage

President, Institute for America's Future

We are sitting idly, watching, and suffering, as our nation disintegrates into a run-down backwater. At the same time, over 20 million people are in need of full-time work. Yet instead of grabbing this opportunity to rebuild the country, Washington is focused on cutting budgets.

Linda Keenan

Author, "Suburgatory"

I returned to Scouts after realizing that by quitting, I had done exactly as that hardened core, which doesn't have stranglehold on my local area, wanted: to purge gays and straight allies of the organization.

Martha Burk

Money Editor, Ms. magazine; director, Corporate Accountability Project, National Council of Women's Organizations

Let's hope when the next Memorial Day rolls around, the good news will be that changes have been made. Our military women deserve to be safe from attack by their own ranks. Those who assault their peers and dishonor the country in the bargain deserve to be punished, not protected.

Matthew Dowd

Political strategist

If he weren't president today, Professor Obama would be up in arms over the actions of President Obama and his administration. In fact, he was up in arms over similar things involving the administration of President Bush.

Lincoln Mitchell

Harriman Institute, Columbia University

The Obama administration, through incompetency, pettiness, venality or something else, has unwittingly badly damaged the IRS. Some on the right may celebrate this, but a tax agency that cannot enforce regulations or laws is a major problem in a modern state.

Adam Levin

Former Director New Jersey Division of Consumer Affairs; founder of Credit.com and Identity Theft 911

Why should middle-class students pay more for loans than is absolutely necessary, all the while padding the government's coffers and enabling state universities to build facilities that the students will only get to use for four years?