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melissa j hogan

@melissajhogan.substack.com
1K followers 321 following 133 posts

Attorney • Advocate • Author, “Afraid of the Doctor” • Parenting a son with rare disease/special needs • Grieving the loss of another son • I #amwriting about the intersection of the law, faith, and abuse at melissajhogan.substack.com

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melissa j hogan @melissajhogan.substack.com · 07/04/2025
And here I thought maybe after losing John Stamos, we gained Texas Matty, but alas 😂
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melissa j hogan @melissajhogan.substack.com · 31/03/2025
One of the best metaphors I’ve ever photographed. #IYKYK
A color photograph of the Washington Monument leaning on the National Museum of African-American History and Culture - which has recently been targeted by the fascist and narcissistic president as somehow perpetuating anti-American ideology when all it does is tell the unvarnished truth about slavery, segregation, and racism in the United States of America that has been left out of most of the history books in any comprehensive fashion.
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melissa j hogan @melissajhogan.substack.com · 25/02/2025
I’ll own the world class label thank you very much Dave Ramsey 💁🏼‍♀️ #IYKYK
The backs of a pair of custom converse high tops show a pink stripe with the words, world class in it
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melissa j hogan @melissajhogan.substack.com · 29/01/2025
On the morning of May 20, 2019, I placed this card down in front of me on a table in a courtroom in Williamson County, Tennessee. Walking in, I had passed three board members of Ramsey Solutions, Dave Ramsey’s company, sitting on a bench outside the doors. They were there to try to make sure… +
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melissa j hogan @melissajhogan.substack.com · 29/01/2025
“It is never a good time to bow down to a tyrant.” - @jimacosta.bsky.social
Image of Jim Acosta, CNN anchor, on his last show on the network. He states, “It is never a good time to bow down to a tyrant.” The words shows as closed caption on the bottom of the screen. Behind Acosta is the dome of the US Capitol.
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melissa j hogan @melissajhogan.substack.com · 25/01/2025
Who will tell them that this is actually what religious persecution looks like and they are the Romans
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melissa j hogan @melissajhogan.substack.com · 22/01/2025
This IS abuse. Period. Full stop. This is intimidation, verbal abuse, and emotional abuse. We have enough accounts now to know that Pete Hegseth has an abusive mindset. It would *absolutely* play out in how he would abuse his authority at the DOD. www.washingtonpost.com/national-sec...
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melissa j hogan @melissajhogan.substack.com · 10/01/2025
4 facts about abuse everyone should know: 1. Abusers don’t abuse everyone 2. Abusers don’t abuse all the time 3. Abuse is a mindset that results in patterns of behavior 4. An abusive mindset is very difficult to change and generally take decades of intentional work IF the abuser wants to change
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melissa j hogan @melissajhogan.substack.com · 02/01/2025
A preview of my #Substack that launches tomorrow, January 3 - IYKYK RES IPSA with Melissa J. Hogan Would love if you’d subscribe! open.substack.com/pub/melissaj...
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melissa j hogan @melissajhogan.substack.com · 02/01/2025
I realized a few years ago that I had let writing be a hobby, because then I couldn’t “fail” at it. But if I gave it power and time, made serious goals, put them out into the world, then I might possibly fail - no one would read, no one would engage, what I say would not matter. I joined #substack-
A cream-colored square image with the text "2025 - my year of no regrets" at the top. In the middle left is a line drawing of a bird next to a quote, "The most regretful people on earth are those who left the call to creative work, who felt their own creative power restive and uprising, and gave to it neither power nor time." At the bottom is the text, "- Mary Oliver, Poet-"
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melissa j hogan @melissajhogan.substack.com · 19/12/2024
“The idea that you have to resource in your [rare disease] community people who have leftover drug because their child has DIED and that’s your option? That’s your option?” The reality of the delay caused by unreasonable prior authorization reqs. #HealthInsurance #BCBSTN
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melissa j hogan @melissajhogan.substack.com · 17/12/2024
he climbed to the top of his anger and saw that it was good enough for seventeen when the wasted corners of the room wailed until the helpers arrived and the party ended
A scene of waves on the left with the poem on the right:

TIDAL
@melissajhogan

what if
he’s watching you cry
over the spilled
ashes
mixing 
in the waves
over the spoiled
milk
floating
in your coffee

what if you need
the grief
like a lover
on your pillow
lingering scents
and bare naked
bleeding through 
the sheets

he climbed
to the top
of his anger
and saw
that it was good

enough
for seventeen
when the wasted
corners of the room
wailed
until the helpers
arrived
and the party ended
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melissa j hogan @melissajhogan.substack.com · 15/12/2024
The Holiday (2006): The things we don't want to see, pathological lying cheaters, adventurous travel, isolationism as coping, finally choosing myself, and a long lasting but long unbelieved hope that love could actually be honest and beautiful.
A cottage in Surrey, England, home of Iris in the movie, “The Holiday,” when Amanda first arrives at the door in late evening.
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melissa j hogan @melissajhogan.substack.com · 28/11/2024
This is your gentle reminder that Gratitude and grief can walk together. They do not cancel each other out. You can count your many blessings Even as you name your losses. Sorrow alongside thanksgiving is not ingratitude. - @revchrisdavis.bsky.social
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melissa j hogan @melissajhogan.substack.com · 23/11/2024
“If the Divine call does not make us better, it will make us very much worse. Of all bad men religious bad men are the worst. Of all created beings the wickedest is one who originally stood in the immediate presence of God.”

- C.S. Lewis
“Reflections on the Psalms”
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melissa j hogan @melissajhogan.substack.com · 18/08/2023
First post… Venice is worth it
A side canal in Venice, Italy with several colorful boats adjacent to colorful buildings with a blue sky and fluffy cotton candy clouds above
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