The last thing I wanted to think about today was the Ku Klux Klan.

There's enough hate in the world, enough division and fear without those damned hoods again. There's no time for that on a day when - regardless of presidential choice - America is supposed to start its journey toward a peaceful and reassuring transfer of power.

And then I saw them. Crap.

I was walking the dogs on Green Springs Avenue in the Southside of Birmingham, and leaflets were scattered along the curb, as if tossed like old newspapers from a passing car.

"The United Dixie White Knights Realm of Alabama wants you!" it said. "Sleep well tonight knowing that the Klan is alert and awake."

In my neighborhood. On the morning after election. This with a newly elected president with endorsement from Klan leaders.

Was it even real? The thing urged "whitey" to get off the fence, which sounded too odd to be true. Have the hate groups been emboldened by recent event? Was it linked to the election at all?

I contacted Imperial Wizard Brent Waller of the United Dixie White Knights, a Klan group based in Mississippi. He confirmed the flier was the work of the "Birmingham Klavern" of his group.

It was not linked to the campaign, but numbers have shot up in organizations like his because of the same kinds of fears that drove many people to Trump, he said.

"We await Donald Trump to start fulfilling his promises about building a wall, removing illegals and stopping wars started to benefit the New World Order," the imperial wizard wrote in an email. "Now is not the time to pursue political revenge nor get bogged down in attacks against one another. We must right the ship in the next 4 years as we may never get another chance to secure a future for our race and children. We must hold Trump's promises close, and continue on to make damn sure he follows through."

From the Klan.

It's not a campaign thing, I remind myself. It's just a guy in Mississippi who sells Klan robes online and talks of the "hounds of the foreigners" and the "many shades of the Chameleon's ever changing colors." Just a group that throws leaflets in the street and hopes somebody will send $25 to join up.

And submit to a background check and a home visits, just to prove applicants aren't rapists or robbers or undercover Jews.

Waller--whose group dropped leaflets across Mississippi after the Confederate flag was removed from Ole Miss - was unapologetic about the hate or the message. He was ticked that his Alabama guys sent out a shoddy leaflet.

"I appreciate you sending me the poorly printed flier, as an Alabama member will soon here (sic) my thoughts on sending out poorly printed material," Waller wrote in an email. "We seek excellence in all that we do in the UDWK. I simply do not tolerate less."

Excellence. In a flier that argues America's children are unsafe in movie theaters because of blacks and Muslims, even though the movie theater terrorist we all recall was a white man.

Neighbor Rebecca Graber found the fliers beside her car on a nearby street and was aghast.

This was outside my car this morning. I am enraged and I am here to stand with my black brothers and sisters pic.twitter.com/RDjJ3PyYqy — RG (@rebeccagraber) November 9, 2016

"My first reaction was shock and grief," said Graber, who is white. "I feel a responsibility to stand with my black brothers and sisters and Muslim brothers and sisters. In no way do I want this in my neighborhood."

Or in my city. Or in my country.

Donald Trump did not drop those fliers on the street in Birmingham. The Klan did. And Donald Trump did not, as they say, approve the message. But he is president elect now, and the message those fliers sent is strong.

His message - if he is really going to lead this country - must be stronger.