Melissa Cosgrove
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melissacosgrove.bsky.social
Melissa Cosgrove
@melissacosgrove.bsky.social
730 followers 2.1K following 820 posts
Author of Project Reconstitution, a civic document blueprint for rebuilding democratic integrity through care and relation. Based in Chicago.

https://www.projectreconstitution.org/ | https://cosgrove.substack.com/ | https://linktr.ee/melissacosgrove
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melissacosgrove.bsky.social
“Blow it up” is a management style. “Restorative rupture” is a transformation strategy. Happy to share the blueprint if CBS wants something that actually works. See: Project Reconstitution.

h/t @karaswisher.bsky.social
Screenshot of a Bluesky post. Kara Swisher comments on a Wall Street Journal article about Bari Weiss taking over CBS News, saying that “blowing things up” is not a real plan and is a lazy management move. The WSJ preview shows a photo of Bari Weiss in a black blazer.
November 20, 2025 at 7:20 PM
melissacosgrove.bsky.social
Real authority comes from integrity, not fear. If we want a democracy people can trust, we have to rebuild it on that foundation.

Read more: projectreconstitution.org
A navy blue graphic with a centered quote in white text: “Authority rests in the capacity to maintain integrity, not in the power to punish.” Below the quote is the name “Melissa Cosgrove” and the website “projectreconstitution.org.” At the bottom is a colorful circular logo resembling an abstract person with outstretched arms in red, orange, green, and teal.
November 20, 2025 at 6:58 PM
melissacosgrove.bsky.social
ICYMI: Project Reconstitution is now public.

It’s my civic document on how we rebuild trust, integrity, and care into the structure of American democracy.

Read here: projectreconstitution.org
November 20, 2025 at 2:18 AM
melissacosgrove.bsky.social
We were never meant to survive alone. Systems endure because their parts hold one another in place. Our politics forgot this. Our future depends on remembering it.

Read my new civic document: projectreconstitution.org
Dark blue background with white serif text that reads, “Interdependence is not weakness. It is the condition of life.” Below it: “Melissa Cosgrove, projectreconstitution.org.” At the bottom is a circular multicolored abstract logo resembling a person with outstretched arms.
November 19, 2025 at 5:23 PM
melissacosgrove.bsky.social
November 14, 2025 at 2:18 PM
melissacosgrove.bsky.social
Defector calls Showgirl bad because it’s “about greed.”
Of course it is. It’s about us. My essay → bit.ly/48XsG6O
cc @mckinneykelsey.bsky.social @defector.com
October 12, 2025 at 1:29 AM
melissacosgrove.bsky.social
If Glass House I was about being seen,
Glass House II is about what sees us back.

A reflection on light, distance, and the transparency of the universe; how the cosmos itself is a kind of relation.

🔗 bit.ly/4nCrCtx
A deep-space image of the Horsehead Nebula, with clouds of purple, blue, and amber gas illuminated by distant starlight. The title text reads “Glass Houses II: On light, relation, and the cosmic continuity of seeing.” The image evokes transparency, scale, and the shared architecture of illumination across the universe.
October 6, 2025 at 5:44 PM
melissacosgrove.bsky.social
We think of being seen as vulnerability, and seeing as power.
But what if they’re the same thing?

Glass House I explores the quiet reciprocity between sight and exposure — the way illumination reveals us all.

🔗 bit.ly/4mNGO5S
A woman stands in a dimly lit room, looking upward toward soft light streaming through a round window. Dust and mist catch the light in visible rays, surrounding her in a quiet, reflective atmosphere. The image accompanies the essay “Glass Houses I: What happens when sight becomes relation” on cosgrove.substack.com.
October 4, 2025 at 11:54 PM
melissacosgrove.bsky.social
News about the Flotilla today is not just geopolitical — it’s temporal. This is about who claims time.

I wrote The Tempo of Relation to name precisely that: how dominance accelerates fracture, how relation returns time to us.

🔗 bit.ly/3IRQy10
Black background graphic with white text that reads: “If you want to see how domination owns time, look at Palestine. Time there is measured not in days or years but in waiting: waiting at checkpoints, waiting for permits that never arrive, waiting for power or water to return after deliberate cuts, waiting to starve, waiting to die. An entire people’s future is held on someone else’s clock.” Below the text: “Melissa Cosgrove, developing The Care Paradigm” with a small colorful circular logo at the bottom.
October 2, 2025 at 8:56 PM
melissacosgrove.bsky.social
Duct tape on glasses. A broken laptop screen. A frayed charger. Sometimes survival and creation share the same tools.
A pair of lavender glasses held together with silver duct tape rests on a rose-gold laptop. The laptop’s screen is cracked and frayed at the edges, glowing with a blurred music app in the background. Soft light falls across the scene, emphasizing the sense of makeshift survival and persistence.
September 30, 2025 at 8:20 PM
melissacosgrove.bsky.social
Today’s writing partner, Archer. 🐈‍⬛ 📝
Black cat sitting on a bed
September 29, 2025 at 7:02 PM
melissacosgrove.bsky.social
More modern art. 🖼️

www.tiktok.com/t/ZTM2vjo5D/
September 29, 2025 at 6:57 PM
melissacosgrove.bsky.social
Loyalty demanded is not care.
When it’s expected — especially in the face of harm — it becomes rupture itself.

New essay on Harris, Biden, and what leadership grounded in care must look like → bit.ly/41XMTVZ

cc @kamalaharris.com
A black background with centered white serif text that reads: “If loyalty is expected in the face of harm, it becomes rupture itself. And if loyalty is expected at all, it has already become harm.” Below the quote, in smaller white text: “Melissa Cosgrove, developing The Care Paradigm.” At the bottom is a colorful circular logo with red, orange, teal, and pink shapes forming an abstract person with raised arms.
September 19, 2025 at 9:19 PM
melissacosgrove.bsky.social
Two men were found hanging from trees in Mississippi this week. Different places, different lives — but the same haunting form. This thread is about what that means, why it cannot be ignored, and why we must bear witness to what it reveals about us. 🧵 #Mississippi #TreeHanging #BearingWitness #Care
A collage of two news screenshots. The first headline reads “Man found hanging near Vicksburg casino,” with a WAPT 16 ABC graphic showing a map of Vicksburg, Mississippi, along I-20 and the Mississippi River, labeled “HANGING REPORTED.” The second headline reads “Student’s body found ‘hanging from tree’ at Mississippi university, authorities say,” from WLBT 3 News. A blue graphic lists details: “21 year old Demartravion ‘Trey’ Reed from Grenada. Staff discovered the body Monday morning. No evidence of foul play. MBI is assisting with investigation.” Delta State University’s logo appears on the left.
September 16, 2025 at 4:57 PM
melissacosgrove.bsky.social
September 13, 2025 at 12:21 AM
melissacosgrove.bsky.social
I don’t know if you’ve noticed… but every headline and feed tonight is using the same phrase: “political violence has no place in America.”

It’s the same script, word for word. Politicians, media pundits, editorial boards. Did they get a collective memo?

Tell us something we don't already know!
A collage of headlines from major outlets responding to Charlie Kirk’s assassination. Every headline repeats the phrase “political violence,” including The Nation, The Atlantic, The New York Times, Reuters, Politico, NBC, and Fox News. The words “Political Violence” appear large along the side, highlighting how the same label is being applied across the media.
September 11, 2025 at 5:33 AM
melissacosgrove.bsky.social
A single moment can fracture into a thousand versions of truth. What one night in 1990 taught me about memory, rupture, and how trauma keeps moving.
👉 cosgrove.substack.com/p/trauma-travels-through-all-of-us
#trauma #memory #healing
September 6, 2025 at 5:50 PM
melissacosgrove.bsky.social
Social Security sent an email at 1AM that feels more like a campaign ad than a policy update. If you’re wondering what state-sponsored propaganda looks like, it’s this.

#socialsecurity #politics #propaganda #bigbeautifulbill
July 4, 2025 at 6:15 AM
melissacosgrove.bsky.social
Who’s a fictional Wendy? The girl who helps him evolve, but never gets to go with him.
(I’ll go first: Rory Gilmore.)
buff.ly/jCKjPhz
June 23, 2025 at 9:30 PM
melissacosgrove.bsky.social
June 5, 2025 at 9:45 PM
melissacosgrove.bsky.social
There’s a lot of confusion around the term “trauma bonding.” It gets tossed around online to describe intense relationships or shared wounds—but that’s not what it actually means.

#TraumaBonding #LanguageMatters #Psychology
A minimalist dictionary-style graphic with a soft gradient background in pastel tones of blue, yellow, and pink. The word “trauma bonding” is written in bold, black serif font with syllable breaks and pronunciation: “trau·ma bond·ing /ˈträmə ˌbändiNG/ noun.” Below, the definition reads: “a psychological attachment formed between a person and their abuser, reinforced through cycles of fear, control, and intermittent reward; often mistaken for love, loyalty, or deep connection due to the intensity of survival-based coping mechanisms.”
May 12, 2025 at 9:13 PM
melissacosgrove.bsky.social
On its face, this “Strategies to Teach Delayed Gratification” list from my kid’s kindergarten newsletter might seem harmless. But through a neurodivergent, trauma-informed lens? It’s deeply troubling. A thread 🧵:

#Neurodivergent #InclusiveEducation #ADHD #Autism #DisabilityRights #EducationReform
A classroom newsletter titled “Strategies to Teach Delayed Gratification.” The list includes suggestions like: “Create rules and stick to them,” “Don’t accept excuses,” “Provide reasonable consequences,” “Teach skills like problem solving,” “Praise and reward good behavior,” “Encourage goal-setting,” “Model delayed gratification,” “Break down tasks into steps,” “Build routines,” “Use timers or visuals,” and “Reward progress.” The tone of the list is structured and behavior-focused, framed as helpful strategies to support self-regulation. The document is visually simple, black text on a white background, with no illustrations.
May 12, 2025 at 7:07 PM
melissacosgrove.bsky.social
More of this please! CEOs tank their companies with bad decisions, then lay off workers to cover the fallout. If they’re paid for risk and responsibility, why do they vanish when it’s time to be accountable? #target #ceos
May 3, 2025 at 11:46 PM
melissacosgrove.bsky.social
Cool story, bro.
April 10, 2025 at 5:24 PM
melissacosgrove.bsky.social
Matthew 25:35–36 is clear.
Devout capitalism and devout Christianity rarely live in the same body.
For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me. Matthew 25:35-36
April 2, 2025 at 6:51 PM