Dear Mr. Holmes,

I met you the other day on twitter. You were quick to inform me that you were a member of the Michigan electoral college that supported Donald Trump. This is America. It is your right to do so. America is about different opinions and disagreement. Some of my favorite people in the world do not agree with me politically. That is not even where I took issue with your conduct.

However, I do take issue with the fact you attacked me out of no where on social media because of my political stance. To do so is frankly not just juvenile, but contrary to what America is about.

You did not make your attacks about the issues but rather made them personal. In your attacks, you said I had a meth problem. Possibly because I am petite in appearance, and possibly because you have never had a woman dare stand up to your pathetic bullying in your fragile, small life. Regardless of my addict status, unsubstantiated claims about a person can do a lot of damage, and add to the stigma those in the grips of active addiction already feel.

Apparently I don't have to worry according to Jack Holmes

As if you did not go low enough, you went even lower by attacking my physical appearance. You said I looked like an 11 year old boy. Apparently, you see an issue with healthy diet and exercise but to each their own. It only added to the evidence that you had no ground to stand on therefore you had to be as ugly as possible.

What got me was when you told me I was too ugly to be sexually assaulted. This is where you showed us all that you were definitely cut from the same cloth as Donald Trump, and it was no surprise he has the support of men of your ilk.

As you berated my being for no reason, I will admit I sank to your level to meet you. I felt perhaps if I played in the gutter that maybe I could beat you at your own game. However, growing up, I was surrounded by men who behaved better and a mother who raised me to rise above. So my breeding finally got the best of me and I decided to be the bigger person and walked away.

Instead of getting off the computer, you continued to tweet at me for hours as I continued not to respond. You were like the John Cusack character in Say Anything with the boom box, except the John Cusack character was likeable. And the John Cusack character was someone women wanted to talk to. It also made me question how safe you were as a partner, because you think threatening speech towards a woman is okay if she disagrees with you. Imagine if someone were to disagree with you in person? What would stop you from hitting her? From what I saw probably not a whole lot.

Even as I departed for the evening, Mr. Holmes didn’t want to stop fighting.

It also made me want to ask if you had a daughter. What if some stranger was speaking to her this way on the internet because he disagreed with her? How would it make you feel not only as a man, but as a father? Would you tolerate this apocryphal behavior?

Or worse yet, what if you found that you were the parent of a drug addicted daughter? Would a joke about someone being a meth head suddenly be so funny? Women who struggle with the demon of addiction are forced into prostitution and other self-destructive means to feed their habit. The law and order system you support criminalizes their disease. Resources to help them aren’t as plentiful as one thinks. Not to mention it is not uncommon for female drug addicts to be sexually assaulted. How would your words sound played back to you then?

What if some idiot man insulted your daughter’s appearance on the internet? What if she was a vulnerable human being who did not realize that someone like you is just a tool with too much time on his hands and a gutless wonder in person? What if your daughter was to develop an eating disorder? Yeah, you might laugh at me as stupid but it happens all the time to young women. And eating disorders are the psychiatric illness with the number one death toll. Insurance companies give partial to no coverage for those suffering. Many times, someone is sent into a downward, lonely spiral from remarks just like yours. Words kill. What if that was your daughter suffering because some troll was bullying her mercilessly? How would your words sound played back to you then?

As for the remark that I was too ugly to be assaulted, what if your daughter found herself in a situation where she was assaulted? I had a partner who was physically and emotionally abusive. When I had the courage to walk away, I found men like yourself advocating for him. It was disgusting. The reality was, even as he continued to torment me, the laws were in place to help him and not someone like myself who was afraid for her safety. Someone even told me I wasn’t pretty enough to have those problems. It’s a long winding road that changes the way you think and feel forever. I wouldn’t wish this upon anyone’s child, including yours. So that being said, and this was your daughter, how would your words sound played back to you then?

I was angry for several hours, because a person like you has a role in finalizing the pick for the next president of our country. A man who doesn’t respect women, LGBTQ, or minorities. A man who would applaud your manliness in attacking a woman online.

But then I was struck by pity. Sadness that you are such a big man behind a keyboard but are a coward online. Sadness that you did not have men in your life who taught you to respect women. And sadness that your mother did not tell you to disagree with women peacefully, because someday that childhood playmate might be a girlfriend or wife.

If you are as tough as you claim to be, I respectfully invite you to meet me in person. I am doing a show called The Lady and President Tramp January 8, 2017 at 9:30 PM at Don’t Tell Mama in NYC. I am inviting you and your wife as my guests. Show up if you are really as educated, open minded, and tough as you claim to be. This invitation is also out of respect as I have never met a member of the electoral college in person and not many people have.

Either way, I wish you a Happy Holiday.

Respectfully Yours,

April Brucker