Marian Wright Edelman, 1/20/12

President, Children's Defense Fund

Alabama has passed the toughest immigration enforcement law in the country. Now children born in the U.S.A., American citizens, are living in fear. Some children are afraid to go to school.

Sen. Bernie Sanders and Robert Weissman, 1/20/12

We face a choice. Americans can let Citizens United remain the law of the land, or we can have a functioning democracy. We can't have both.

Rep. Dennis Kucinich and Russell Simmons, 1/21/12

This is not a progressive issue or a conservative issue. This is not a Tea Party issue or a liberal issue. This is an American issue. Money is destroying our politics and our political system. The signs are everywhere.

Joseph F. Coughlin, 1/20/12

Founder and director, Massachusetts Institute of Technology AgeLab

The sinking of public trust is integral to our faith in complex social and technical systems that undergird everyday life, our confidence in each other, and ultimately our belief that we can build a better future together.

Mike Lux, 1/20/12

Co-founder and CEO, Progressive Strategies

As Bob Dylan would put it, the times they are a-changin'. There's a storm outside and it's raging, baby. We really are shaking their windows and rattling their walls. The establishment is getting very, very nervous.

Emma, The Emma Edition, 1/20/12

16-year-old NYC-based fashion blogger

Just because I love dressing like I'm Lizzie McGuire with an injection of 1960's mod doesn't mean that society has the right to assume I am not interested in guy's opinions.

Kurt A. Gardinier, 1/21/12

Freelance producer, editor and writer

If asked, Newt Gingrich would obviously say no, in his arrogant, 'you're asking me a ridiculously stupid question' sort of way, but it sure sounds like he is lately. And if he is, he may be doing the "right" thing politically.

Jenee Woodard, 1/21/12

Creator, TextWeek.com

I was thinking about another time when things didn't work out so well on Christmas. ... Another time that folks had to deal with their "normal" being ripped apart by the "normal" of someone else -- of God.

Jedediah Purdy, 1/20/12

Professor, Duke Law School; Author, 'A Tolerable Anarchy'

This is how we've learned to talk about our economy: as a matter of personal virtue and vice, from the overdrawn consumer to the one-percenter with the fifteen percent tax rate and some senators' private numbers in his iPhone.

Nick Penniman and Josh Silver, 1/20/12

The GOP primary debates feature politicians and the debate moderators in a deep state of denial about the most burning issue facing the country: the fact that our elections have become auctions.

Steve Clemons, 1/20/12

Publisher, 'The Washington Note'

Hispanic leaders involved in trying to get Romney to talk with them and engage Hispanic issues are now issuing alerts that they are not at all happy being ignored.

Tey Meadow, J.D., Ph.D., 1/20/12

Sociologist and Cotsen Fellow, Princeton Society of Fellows

The media's singular focus on LGBTQ youth suicides creates a deadly echo chamber. The repetitive tale about our collective failure to address the pain felt by many LGBTQ youth doesn't translate into inspiration for the kids who are still here.

Roy Speckhardt, 1/20/12

Executive Director, American Humanist Association

Since polling place influences the vote, governments and election boards should do all they can to find neutral voting locations. And it would seem very unlikely that churches would be chosen if neutrality were the aim.

Dr. Andrew Weil, 1/20/12

Founder and director, The Arizona Center for Integrative Medicine

Hormesis is a little-known term with huge implications. It refers to a fascinating phenomenon: a favorable biological reaction to low doses of chemical toxins, radiation or some other form of stress that is damaging, even fatal, in higher doses.

Doug Kendall, 1/21/12

Founder and President, Constitutional Accountability Center

Do we need a constitutional amendment to overturn the Supreme Court's ruling in Citizens United v. FEC? Should opponents of the ruling pressure the Supreme Court to reverse course, and also seek changes in the composition of the Court through the appointment process? The answer is yes.

Dennis Santiago, 1/20/12

CEO of Institutional Risk Analytics

The FDIC closed it's first banks of 2012 today. A total of three insitutions were shuttered by the regulator.

James Marshall Crotty, 1/20/12

Forbes Education Columnist; Author, How to Talk American; Director, Crotty's KidsCo-founder, Monk Magazine

If Obama's entertaining performance last night at the Apollo tells me anything, it's Amateur Night in Republican-land, and they are likely to be yanked off the stage come November by Sandman Sim's hook. Prove me wrong.

Noah Fitzgerel, 1/20/12

17-year-old Editorials Editor of his high school newspaper

Simply put, it is imperative that politicians cease to endorse religion in the name of religion. Doing so casts the role of faith, which is an important element in the daily lives of many Americans, in a negative light.

Rep. David Price, 1/20/12

U.S. Representative From North Carolina's Fourth District

Money is not speech, and corporations are not people. The true measure of our success is the well-being of each American, not the wealthy's stock market payouts or corporate profit margins.

Jesse Kornbluth, 1/20/12

Editor of HeadButler.com

That was the thing about Etta: She had total credibility. She lived the blues, and you'd best believe she was going to tell you about them, and in the bluntest (and thus, most poetic) way possible.

Paul Abrams, 1/20/12

Last person on Earth not on Facebook

When it comes to policy and culture, Gingrich rails against anything that smacks of a "European" influence. Well, almost everything.

Christopher Caen, 1/20/12

Writer

The Gold Dust Lounge is one of the venerable old watering holes downtown, which used to be littered with them. Now, like many other cities, downtown is turning into a glorified mall, and the saloon is being forced out for yet another clothing store.

Jeff Schweitzer, 1/20/12

Scientist; Fmr. White House Senior Policy Analyst

When the fact of climate change becomes as evident to doubters as the orbit of the earth, perhaps we will learn from this colossal mistake of elevating opinion to the status of fact. If we are lucky enough, we will have another chance.

Christy Turlington Burns, 1/20/12

Model, writer, entrepreneur, spokesperson, advocate, and filmmaker

Haiti's rates are on par with some of the world's highest burdened countries and ranks it as one of the most risky places in the western hemisphere for poor women to give birth.