I just found out today that my former online writing coach and a dear friend was assaulted last week in Waukesha, Wisconsin, where she lives. Her crime? Being a woman and walking her dogs in the afternoon on the sidewalk: Here's her Facebook post describing the "incident" that I consider a hate crime.

So. I just got shoved off a sidewalk and told to get back in my place. Woman. Sit with me for a minute, please, and help me to breathe. I was walking my dogs around the block, as I always do in the middle of the day. A man was coming toward me, walking down the center of the sidewalk. I gathered my dogs' leashes and prepared to move out of the way. Blossom, our sick dog, the 15-year old who is moving steadily toward her leave-taking, is walking slower these days. I hadn't quite gotten her off the sidewalk when the man caught up to us. I began to say, "Excuse us," when I saw his foot aiming toward Blossom. I stepped in between. He kicked me as Blossom scrambled to get out of the way. Then he grabbed me by the shoulders and threw me off the sidewalk. I fell over the dogs and landed in the grass. The man said, "You need to get back in your place now, woman." I have never ever heard the word woman used with such a tone before. He was wearing a red Make America Great Again hat. Sit with me some more, help me to breathe. Let me get this out. For those of you who voted for the orange asshat, this is what you have unleashed. That, and college students who believe that it's okay to smear their faces with black and yell slurs. Others who think it's okay to parade down hallways with Asshat/ViceAsshat signs, chanting, "White power!" Who think it's okay to hang an effigy of Obama under a sign saying, "We have a dream."

Women who voted for him, start preparing yourself to never ever go outside alone. All women, start preparing for this. There's no longer "Take back the night." We need to start worrying about taking back the stark daylight on a busy street in the downtown of a city. My dogs are okay. I am okay. But I am just so sick. Help me breathe. Help me breathe.

Obviously, she was in shock when she wrote these words, but she is right. Trumps' rhetoric has brought the far right racists, sexists, neo-fascists and other hateful scum out of the woodwork They now feel entitled to threaten and physically attack people they consider "lesser beings" because their guy won. The man to whom our nation's corporate media gave hours and hours of free airtime, airtime valued at over $5 Billion if Trump had had to pay for it. And he did say a lot of hateful and nasty shit, and this is the direct result of that media saturated coverage of those hateful remarks that were broadcast to millions of people, including many unstable individuals.

Kathie's case is being actively pursued by the local police. You can find the original news story that contains a videotaped interview of my friend at this link.

"He grabbed me by my shoulders and threw me off the sidewalk, and I fell over my dogs and landed on the grass and he said,'It's time to put you back in your place woman,'" Giorgio said. She said the man tried to kick one of her dogs. Giorgio was stunned as the man walked off muttering to himself near the bus depot in downtown Waukesha. [...] Giorgio said she's lived in the neighborhood for 10 years and has never had an issue. She blames the extremely divisive political environment right now. "Do I blame Trump supporters? I don't. I think that it's just his rhetoric fed to a certain personality that is now coming out of the shadows who know feel like they have permission to act on whatever hate they have," Giorgio said.

Since the attack on her became public, many have sent Kathie their support. However, a number of truly loathsome people on Facebook and Twitter have said some extremely nasty stuff about her after her post was widely shared on social media. In addition, a local conservative radio host in Waukesha, Jeff Wagner of WTMJ, did a show on her without the decency of contacting her first. When she called the show directly while it was still airing they refused to put her on to tell her story or correct any misleading information Mr. Wagner, who was a Trump supporter, put out over the public airwaves about her and this senseless, hateful assault.

I don't care of you supported Trump, Clinton, Sanders, Stein, Johnson or the Great Meteor. This is so wrong in so many ways. I hadn't commented on the reports of similar hate crime attacks following Trump's victory before now, and I should have. I am sorry it took this happening to someone I know for me to comment on this phenomenon here for the first time. For that I am sorry for everyone who has endured such incidents.