John Tirman

Executive Director, MIT Center for International Studies

Enough has been said about President Obama's speech on counter-terror last Thursday. There's a broader scope for this speech and the implied policy changes, however, which hasn't earned much comment, and that is the long and increasingly sad history of U.S. policy in the Middle East.

Cheryl Saban Ph.D.

Author and advocate for women and children

As we all do our thing -- resting and relaxing, getting ready to officially open up the 'summer' season -- I hope we spend more than just a moment or two reflecting on the reason this federal holiday exists in the first place.

David Paul

President, Fiscal Strategies Group

Graduating from college is a threshold step in the American dream. Not just for students, but for their families, and for past and future generations. When we focus our attention only on the students, we tend to lose sight of the trans-generational significance of higher education.

Wendell Potter

Author, consultant; columnist at Center for Public Integrity and healthinsurance.org

After being cancer-free for more than five years, Donna Smith is battling both the disease and her insurance company once again.

Adam Shahan

Associate Minister, First United Methodist Church, Moore, Okla.

On May 3, 1999, at age 12, I watched the destruction that the EF5 tornado caused in the Oklahoma City metro area. Fourteen years later, as a pastor in a United Methodist Church in
Moore, I thought back to 1999 as I helped hurry people into the safe room at our church.

Rep. Charles Rangel and Rep. Glenn 'GT' Thompson

Memorial Day is a unique and special holiday for many reasons. However, unlike others, the American flag is lowered to half-staff until noon, when it is then raised to full-staff for the remainder of the day.

Mohamed A. El-Erian

CEO and co-CIO, PIMCO

Allow me please to take you back for a moment to the beginning of 2011. Remember how surprised the world was that, in just 18 days, a leaderless grass-root uprising managed to topple the Mubarak regime that had ruled Egypt with an iron fist for 30 years?

Edit Schlaffer

Founder, Women Without Borders/SAVE

Western anti-Muslim sentiment needs to be balanced by Muslims voicing their determination to confront the Islamist threat and expose the abuses of Islam by a small minority of extremists.

Robert Reich

Chancellor's Professor of Public Policy, University of California at Berkeley; Author, 'Beyond Outrage'

All these men are honorable. None has broken any law. But they and their ilk in congress -- the Democrats who are now rolling back Dodd-Frank -- don't seem to appreciate the extent to which Wall Street has harmed, and continues to harm, America.

Peter Dreier

E.P. Clapp Distinguished Professor of Politics, Occidental College

If the Waltons really wanted to make positive change in children's educations and lives, they would steer far clear of Michelle Rhee and her troublesome track record.

Elliott Negin

Director of News & Commentary, Union of Concerned Scientists

Every time journalists cite contrarian scientists or industry-funded think tank spokespeople, they validate them as a trustworthy source. And every time journalists fail to disclose where contrarians get their funding, they fail to explain whose interests they serve.

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.

David Coates

Worrell Professor of Anglo-American Studies, Wake Forest University, Department of Politics

The attention span in Washington, D.C. these days is remarkably short, and multi-tasking is something at which Congress seems particularly inept. So right now the focus there is overwhelming on just one thing: scandals, while the real business of the American people goes largely unexamined.

Marian Wright Edelman

President, Children's Defense Fund

America has a spiritual problem when it protects guns rather than children. Why are we not all calling our legislators and expressing outrage? How can we let the voices of gun dealers and manufacturers drown out the cries of children?

Michael Sargeant

Executive director, Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee

Supporting our veterans is not cheap; it involves a real investment in both policy and budget priorities. But our veterans put our country first and stepped up, and on this Memorial Day, state legislators of both parties need to be standing up for veterans with real resources as well.

Jeffrey Bland, Ph.D

President, Personalized Lifestyle Medicine Institute

More and more, health professionals from varied fields put their energies, time and money toward gaining the knowledge and experience necessary to effectively embrace the power of nutrition. But astonishingly, health professionals with nutrition tools to reverse chronic health conditions are gagged in many states.

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.