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Mary Pezzulo

@marypezzulo.bsky.social

3.4K followers 1.1K following 18K posts

I write about the Gospel, politics, gardening, Christianity, spiritual abuse, neurodivergence and social justice. 🏳️‍🌈

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Mary Pezzulo @marypezzulo.bsky.social · 1d

Unfortunately, with the government shutdown at the beginning of the fiscal year, WIC doesn’t have its funding.
They’re not getting their money for the year, and they’re on an $150 million emergency fund that will last for a couple more weeks. That’s all they have.

www.patheos.com/blogs/steelm...

WIC Is Running Out Of Money, Fast

Unfortunately, with the government shutdown at the beginning of the fiscal year, WIC doesn't have its funding.

www.patheos.com

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Reposted by Mary Pezzulo

jamelle @jamellebouie.net · 3h

really can’t say enough about how mike johnson is a sniveling little coward of a man. a bayou-bred pushover with a dignity deficit that would embarrass renfield

Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 4h

Q: Do you agree that the mayor of Chicago and governor of Illinois should be in prison?

MIKE JOHNSON: Should they be in prison? I'm not the attorney general. I'm not following the day to day on that

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Mary Pezzulo @marypezzulo.bsky.social · 27m

The boilerplate. In the middle of the month is the best time to visit the tip jar or get a paid substack subscription, because it's when all the bills are due! Thank you to my readers, more writing is coming soon!

www.patheos.com/blogs/steelm...

Blogkeeping Notes For Fall 2025

Hi friends, This isn't a real post. This is just my every-few-months blogkeeping post, to help you keep track of what I've been up to and how to

www.patheos.com

Mary Pezzulo @marypezzulo.bsky.social · 28m

There were more than half a dozen McCooks buried at the edge of the trees under a line of stone rectangles. Just reading their names, somehow, I felt all the fear and suspense and anger that have been bouncing around my stomach since last November.

www.patheos.com/blogs/steelm...

On The First Cold Day

Today was the first cold day of Autumn. It rained for the first time in I don't know how long, soaking the grass...

www.patheos.com

Mary Pezzulo @marypezzulo.bsky.social · 30m

WIC benefits are associated with better birth rates, lower rates of nutrition deficiencies, and better performance at school for young children.

Unfortunately, with the government shutdown at the beginning of the fiscal year, WIC doesn’t have its funding.

WIC Is Running Out Of Money, Fast

Unfortunately, with the government shutdown at the beginning of the fiscal year, WIC doesn't have its funding.

www.patheos.com

Mary Pezzulo @marypezzulo.bsky.social · 32m

"And this is a gryphon. Just like Jesus is both God and human, the gryphon is both lion and eagle. That’s how the bestiary taught lessons about God.”

“Is that gryphon… EATING someone?” asked a little girl in the front row.
www.patheos.com/blogs/steelm...

A Picture Of God

"Those people love God!" said Jimmy's boy. "Well, I guess so." "You should get a picture of God like that, for YOUR car."

www.patheos.com

Mary Pezzulo @marypezzulo.bsky.social · 34m

To be a neighbor, according to the Gospel, is to help the very person that your culture tells you you ought to despise. Your neighbor is the helpless person that the powerful are pointing to and saying “this is a bad person, and all your problems are their fault.”
www.patheos.com/blogs/steelm...

Immigrants Are Your Neighbor. They Are In Danger

I'm at a loss to get through to you, that immigrants are your neighbors.Yes, even illegal immigrants. There's no "they should have followed the rules" exception to an immigrant being your neighbor.

www.patheos.com

Mary Pezzulo @marypezzulo.bsky.social · 36m

Steubenville is an economically depressed Northern Appalachian town of eighteen thousand people. We often have problems with crime, but we don’t have a problem with immigrant crime.
marypezzulo.substack.com/p/a-word-on-...

A Word on the Steubenville Charter Amendment Proposal

Maybe I just won't open mail from the City anymore.

marypezzulo.substack.com

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Mary Pezzulo @marypezzulo.bsky.social · 38m

Let’s say you were a box turtle who lived among more conventional reptiles. There were anoles and Gila monsters and horned lizards all around you, but you were a box turtle.
marypezzulo.substack.com/p/on-autism-...

On Autism, Turtles, and Education

...and what herpetology can tell us about neurodiversity

marypezzulo.substack.com

Mary Pezzulo @marypezzulo.bsky.social · 40m

Bear with me for just a moment.

Let’s pretend that the only people who were ever allowed to say they had freckles, were girls who had red hair, light skin, and hundreds of freckles all over their bodies.
(this article is about autism.)
marypezzulo.substack.com/p/this-artic...

This Article Is Not About Freckles

It's about autism. Okay? It's an article about autism.

marypezzulo.substack.com

Mary Pezzulo @marypezzulo.bsky.social · 41m

You can listen with interest while an autistic child info-dumps about their special interest. This is how autistic people try to connect with others: we tell you about things that are exciting, things we love, things that make us happy.
marypezzulo.substack.com/p/if-you-see...

"If You See A Kid With Autism..."

...you might try treating that kid like a human being.

marypezzulo.substack.com

Mary Pezzulo @marypezzulo.bsky.social · 44m

But do you really fear disability that much? Would you really rather your child died, or had a birth defect? Wouldn't you rather make a more compassionate world for the disabled?
substack.com/@marypezzulo...

Trump, RFK Junior, and Autism: What's the Real Danger to Society?

Empathy and compassion are good, and so are autistic children.

substack.com

Mary Pezzulo @marypezzulo.bsky.social · 47m

There was a stone staircase spiraling up the side of the mound, with a sign warning tourists to stay on the stairs and not step on the grass.
I had never walked on an Adena monument before.
I only got halfway. I am terrified of heights.

www.patheos.com/blogs/steelm...

Walking The Mound, Between Bones And Floods

On the east side is a series of shale hills, the foothills of the Appalachian mountains, a mountain range some people call "older than bones"

www.patheos.com

Mary Pezzulo @marypezzulo.bsky.social · 49m

I couldn’t read the worn inscriptions on the stones, but I read the plaque declaring that these were the Union soldiers who had fallen in the Civil War.
I wanted to tell the Union soldiers about the little girl who’d danced with me to “Battle Cry of Freedom.”

www.patheos.com/blogs/steelm...

In The Here And Now

Again and again, I try to write the way Northern Appalachia feels, here and now. I've got to find a way to crystalize the here and now.

www.patheos.com

Reposted by Mary Pezzulo

Molly McKew @mollymckew.bsky.social · 54m

“Don’t you want someone else to die before you” is not a question moral leaders in a democratic society ask voters

“Isn’t your life worth more than <<points>> *them*” is not the beginning of anyone’s better America

This is how men like Putin control their people while failing to give them anything

Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 4h

Mike Johnson: "If you're a young, pregnant American citizen women who shows up in an ER and you get treated and they pay the hospital less for treating you than some illegal rabble rouser who came in from some South American country to do us harm, that is wrong."

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Mary Pezzulo @marypezzulo.bsky.social · 51m

“I’m not on ice,” she explained, meaning meth. “Just fentanyl and crack. I’ll get my stuff out just one minute. Thank you for letting me use the car! It was so comfortable and it’s cold out here!”

www.patheos.com/blogs/steelm...

Driving Serendipity

I drove to Columbus in Serendipity. It's hard getting used to a new car that works properly. The Neighborhood Trolley was in bad shape from the

www.patheos.com

Mary Pezzulo @marypezzulo.bsky.social · 55m

Downhill, clumsy as ever, staring at my feet so I wouldn’t trip, in a cacophony of crunching leaves. In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost, amen.

I would’ve been such a good Catholic in an entirely different era.
www.patheos.com/blogs/steelm...

Confession At Shafer's Rock

I went to the Wildflower Reserve, to see how the world was going to sleep. I can't even begin to tell you how I've longed for a hike this

www.patheos.com

Mary Pezzulo @marypezzulo.bsky.social · 58m

I rested on one of the stones for a minute, listening to the trees go to sleep.
Everything was colorful, everything was beautiful, everything was clean and musical and lively because it was dying at its appointed time.
www.patheos.com/blogs/steelm...

An October Theophany

In among the dead leaves on the bridge, there were red round shapes of a different kind. They were rose petals.

www.patheos.com

Mary Pezzulo @marypezzulo.bsky.social · 59m

For the longest time, we drove in quiet awe as if we were in church. Scarlet, claret, plum, heather, coral, pumpkin, amber, citron, marigold, all against the green that had yet to change. The sky overhead was blue and then gray.
www.patheos.com/blogs/steelm...

When Grief Gives Way To Peace

At that word, the grief gave up on stabbing me and took out a flame thrower. I thought of how much I dread going to church, how severe the religious trauma has felt, how I've failed to be a proper zea...

www.patheos.com

Mary Pezzulo @marypezzulo.bsky.social · 1h

There was the water, bright blue where it reflected the sky and dank green algae where the trees overshadowed. There were the trees, still two thirds green and the rest a glorious gold. There was the firmament with God above it, if God is anywhere at all.
www.patheos.com/blogs/steelm...

To Sit With My Grief

I was terrified and angry and overwhelmed with depression... no, not depression at all. This was something else. It was grief.

www.patheos.com

Mary Pezzulo @marypezzulo.bsky.social · 1h

He got paid $20 billion US dollars to pretend to be a rock star.

Not In My Name 🔻 @writerware.bsky.social · 12h

Milei capers around on stage whilst the country falls to pieces. This is a perfect encapsulation of his role, a narcisistic fool who clowns around and holds peoples attention whilst the Argentine ruling class reduces the country back to the level of neo-colonial dependency last seen prior to 1914.

Reposted by Mary Pezzulo

Asawin Suebsaeng @swin24.bsky.social · 3h

there is a government shutdown with no end in sight and it’s not even really the lead story rn because the president can’t stop invading American cities for no reason other than spite

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Reposted by Mary Pezzulo

Angry Leshy @americanleshy.bsky.social · 2h

They are just relentlessly violating the Constitution at this point...

Lorenzo Franceschi-Bicchierai @lorenzofb.bsky.social · 1d

NEW: ICE purchased custom-made vans from a company called TechOps Specialty Vehicles (TOSV) that are equipped with fake cellphone towers designed to spy on phones.

TOSV president said the company integrates the cell-site simulators into their vans, but does not manufacture the surveillance tool.

ICE bought vehicles equipped with fake cell towers to spy on phones | TechCrunch

The federal contract shows ICE spent $825,000 on vans equipped with “cell-site simulators” which allow the real-world location tracking of nearby phones and their owners.

techcrunch.com

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Reposted by Mary Pezzulo

Michael Edison Hayden @michaelehayden.bsky.social · 5h

I love when Andy Ngo does one of his David Attenborough-style posts about Antifa and highlights some kid who took a bong rip and waddled into the protest dressed like a giant muppet.

My favorite flavor of his commentary by far.

Andy Ngo wants to draw your attention to Barney the dinosaur

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Mary Pezzulo @marypezzulo.bsky.social · 3h

It makes me sick just thinking about this.

Ned Resnikoff @resnikoff.bsky.social · 3h

Even if we ignored all the other crimes that Trump, Rubio and Musk have committed, Hell would not be hot enough for them.

Amanda Katz @katzish.bsky.social · 8h

Horrific reporting from the AP on the Myanmar families watching their kids starve to death from Trump and Musk’s aid cuts apnews.com/article/myan...

Reposted by Mary Pezzulo

Mueller, She Wrote @muellershewrote.com · 3h

NEW: Comey is going to file selective and vindictive prosecution motion to dismiss AND he will challenge the legality of Halligan’s appointment! There’s more, too… so glad @annabower.bsky.social is there to bring us the whole story! Thread below with details:

Anna Bower @annabower.bsky.social · 4h

The judge also set an initial schedule for pre-trial motions.

The first set is expected by Oct. 12. Per Comey’s defense counsel, that batch will include motions to dismiss for selective and vindictive prosecution, as well as a motion challenging the legality of Halligan’s appointment as US attorney

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