Hate for the Holidays

November is ending on a disturbing note. First, Cheap Thrills blogs about her brush with racism at Gypsy Bar. Then, last night a friend calls me to say that she received hate mail! She's back from NYC for just a few days rest from her PhD program and received a hand-written Christmas card in the mail yesterday. She read me the message over phone; it started out with "I don't know why you aren't dead yet." The rest of the card was filled with an angry rant from someone who claimed that she intimidated classmates in high school and was a hypocrite for talking about the Bible and pretending to be a Christian. The sender ordered her to stop talking about the Bible, claimed that God was not on her side, and ended with the words "Jesus hates you."

Wow!

My friend freely admits that she's not Christian, but anyone who knew her in high school knows that at 5' 4" tall, she's never been threatening. Besides that, she's such a bookworm/academic/all-around nice gal that it would never occur to her to intimidate anyone or insult someone's religion. When she asked what she should do, I advised her to start by contacting our high school alumni association. I figured she could find out who might be looking her up and they could get out a warning to anyone else with the same name who graduated from our school. For all we know, it could be a case of mistaken identity. Besides that, we figured bringing the card to the cops would be a smart move. Since it was mailed and hand-written, there's a good chance the police could track down the sender's location and possible identity. My friend had the smarts to hold the letter with gloves, so there's potential for finding fingerprints, too.

What a way to spend the holiday season. What's going on, Boston?

Update:

My friend went to the cops and reported the card to our alumni association. We have no idea what to expect from either, but at least she's not suffering in silence. She also sent me an image of the card. I got the final words wrong; then again, the sentiment behind them is still there. Click on the images to enlarge them.

 

Comments

[Suldog]

Somebody sent out a threatening Christmas card? Cue the theme from "Luney Tunes". Geez. Talk about crossed wires.

[RyanB]

Wow, Christmas card hate mail? That's actually comical, in a scary kind of way. Man oh man, some weird stuff has been going on. Hopefully December will bring Holiday cheer and nice cards.

[Heidi]

What is wrong with people? Talk about the complete antithesis of the spirit of Christmas. I'm glad your friend is alright. I'm sending some Christmas spirit her way. :)