I returned to work on Sunday to find three envelopes from you on my desk. They must have arrived sometime last week when I was in Wisconsin with my family for Thanksgiving.
In the letters, which were all identical (I’m not sure why you felt the need to send three), you claim to be someone I went to high school with. You say you love Donald Trump because “he’s anti-semitic and anti-Islamic” and you think I’m a “stupid Jewish faggot.” I can’t be sure we really went to school together but the envelopes were postmarked with a stamp from Milwaukee so I suspect, sadly, that you’re telling the truth.
Apparently you started a petition to get me fired because of my anti-Trump posts on Facebook and because you “don’t like Jewish people” and you “don’t like” me. You claim to be circulating the petition amongst alumni from our high school “and various people across the United States.” You’ve supposedly already secured 500 signatures and, not only that, you are planning to file a “civil suite” (whatever that is) against me and The Huffington Post as well.
And then, after all of this ridiculousness, you don’t even have the guts to sign your name and instead close with “A former Prairie School Student and Huge Donald Trump Support [sic] and Huge Supporter of the Christian Coalition.”
I guess I shouldn’t be surprised by your words, considering hate crimes and hate speech have skyrocketed since Trump won the electoral vote earlier this month. It seems every racist, misogynistic, homophobic, Islamophobic, anti-semitic, xenophobic monster who has been waiting for his/her/their chance to crawl out of whatever sewer they were hiding in has been emboldened by the in-coming Trump administration. I have a hunch it’s only going to get worse, but that doesn’t mean I have to take it lying down (or standing up or reclining on a chaise lounge or hopping on one leg or...), and, in fact, it only makes me more resolute to speak up more and more loudly.
With that being said, here are just a few more things I’d like you to know:
1. While I’m always thrilled and delighted to get mail on a piece of paper in an envelope with a stamp on it, based on your writing skills, I’m embarrassed to hear that we went to the same (supposedly stellar) high school. The Prairie School failed you and I’m sorry.
2. It’s insanely creepy to now know that I was going to school with a (soon-to-be?) neo-Nazi.
3. As far as your goal to have me fired from my job, I guess you don’t understand who I work for or my company’s very public feelings about Donald Trump, but that being said...
4. I’m impressed that supposedly 500 people care enough about me (or even know who I am) to sign a petition to get me canned. My ego feels stroked and it feels kind of nice. Thank you.
5. Finally, and perhaps most importantly: Fuck you! As scary as it is to know that people like you (from my own past, no less) exist ― and feel comfortable enough with your hate to publicly (though anonymously) broadcast it ― I’m not afraid of you. I’m worried sick about all of the ways you and your cronies could corrode our country in the next four years ― but I refuse to be afraid of you.
Yours,
Noah Michelson, a former Prairie School student and proud (half) Jewish faggot who isn’t afraid to sign his name to the statements he makes