Author: Laurie Prim

What Happened: Hillary Clinton’s Story Matters and She Doesn’t Need Permission To Tell It

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September 16, 2017 I could spend hours, days, weeks, writing what I think about Hillary Clinton and the vitriolic reaction to her new book, What Happened, and I haven’t even read it yet. (Awaiting my library copy this week.) But I don’t have that kind of time. Not because—like so many people active in the resistance—I have young children, an actual paying job, and no more hours of sleep to sacrifice; we’re all trying to scrap together whatever we can do: call our Members of Congress, write letters to the editor, attend town halls and myriad organizational meetings, promote fundraisers, participate in protests, and on and on. I don’t have that kind of time because all of these actions, and anything I have to say about Hillary Clinton, Bernie Sanders, and for that matter, Donald Trump and his despicable minions, ultimately distill to one thing: Votes, at the grass roots level. No matter who in-the-know I talk to or read, it’s the common bottom line—get the vote out, and Democrats can win. Good—or at least equilibrium—can be restored. That’s what’s going to take the rest of my tank. From now until November 2018 (at least), getting out the Dem vote is where I need to ruthlessly focus every last bit of my disposable time and energy, and waxing poetic about Hillary Clinton’s 40 year political career, how brilliant and...

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Gas Stations Are Not A Substitute For Women’s Healthcare

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September 15, 2017 Of all the letters I’ve written, I think I’m happiest about this one being published. I was sickened to my core by Congressman Brian Mast’s statements (and antics) at his August town hall meeting regarding women’s reproductive healthcare. FL District 18, it is our civic duty not only to our community, but to our country, that we stay loud in exposing Mast for the right wing extremist he is, and get the vote out against him in 2018. #RESIST #BigMASTake #MastIsPast2018 #StayLoud #Getyourreligionoffmybody #ProtectPlannedParenthood #ReproductiveJustice#InfertilityCounts http://www.tcpalm.com/story/opinion/readers/2017/09/15/masts-enthusiasm-shutting-planned-parenthood-shows-his-extreme-views/658212001/...

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All I Have To Say About Hurricanes

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September 6, 2017 Laurie Prim What Didn’t Kill Me Chapter 6:  11 Weeks, about the size of a lime Grief is not linear. I’m jagged. I finally make it to July, but based on my cycles, it turns out to be August before we can try to get pregnant again. I take a test and wait three minutes for the negative. Getting pregnant now would put my new due date exactly at the week of my miscarriage in April. My body knows, and won’t have it. September taunts as my November due date approaches—I’m not pregnant, I’m not pregnant, I’m not pregnant—and our window for trying this month gets sabotaged by, of all things, hurricanes. Frances is coming, and it’s a monster, projected to hit nearly the entire state of Florida. Wayne and I hang shutters, stack plants and patio furniture in the garage, and tie down our boat. Then we pack photo albums into the car and evacuate to Naples, the southwest corner of Florida, the one little tip of the state falling outside The Weather Channel’s Cone of Projection. We stay with family friends and watch the TV fretfully for two days as the news reports declare (over and over and over) a Category 3 direct hit on Stuart, and helplessly wonder what we’ll return home to. We return to a mess. Our yard is destroyed—the fence...

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What I’m Reading Now (32): Dark Money by Jane Mayer

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September 5, 2017 Finished Reading: Dark Money by Jane Mayer Dark, indeed. Dark, depressing, daunting, diabolical. This book is a tome of the big, ugly names behind the big, ugly money machine that over the past 40 years re-defined American politics, and in doing so has re-shaped our nation. It would take me several re-reads to really grasp everything in this well-researched, incredibly detailed book, and there is no way that’s happening. Here are a few of my takeaways. Dark Money starts with Fred Koch, a nasty sonofabitch whose “willingness to work with the Soviets and the Nazis was a major factor in creating the Koch family’s early fortune,” and whose cruelty spilled over into his parenting. Koch and his wife, Mary, had four sons who ended up so twisted they viciously fought each other for decades over money after they each inherited hundreds of millions. Charles—and to a slightly lesser extent, David—in particular, emerged as libertarians whose goal was to “tear the government out ‘at the root.’” Charles began with actively attracting and recruiting youth, “funneling millions of dollars into educational indoctrination, with free-market curricula and even video games promoting his ideology pitched to prospects as young as grade school,” but it didn’t end there. The lengths Koch and his associates went to is nearly unthinkable. Leonard Ligio, a Koch think tank associate, supported using the Nazi’s model...

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When Your Congressman Believes Women Can Access Reproductive Healthcare At a Gas Station

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September 1, 2017 I submitted this as an LTE, but I can’t wait. This has been gnawing at me all week. He sickens me, and is doing his Master Trump and Tea Party proud. #RESIST #BigMASTake #MastIsPast2018 #NotMyCongressman #FuckYouYouFuckingFuck During Congressman Brian Mast’s town hall meeting at the Grace Place in Stuart on August 24th several questions were raised regarding Planned Parenthood and reproductive healthcare for women. Mr. Mast enthusiastically supports shutting Planned Parenthood down and believes that women can be equally well served by community health centers. We cannot. The health centers don’t have the functional capacity to serve an additional 29,000 patients—men and women—who receive care at our local Planned Parenthood. Where will the additional funding to support the influx of patients come from? Neither Mr. Mast, nor the community health employee he had speak at the meeting, were able to answer. Most concerning is Mr. Mast’s belief that it is up to anyone except a woman to decide on her own healthcare and/or contraception. I was aghast at his statement that, “Everyone has access to birth control at a gas station.” It is outrageous and unacceptable to assert that any woman should rely on a male-dependent method of birth control shelved between cigarette cartons and lottery tickets rather than have access to reproductive healthcare with a physician. Mr. Mast also stated that he and his wife would happily take...

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