Stand Up to Hate in Upper Perk

My name is Erin Dunphy. I'm a junior attending Upper Perkiomen High School, and at my arrival home from school I discovered a letter addressed to "Proud American". When I opened the letter, it revealed a disgustingly racist illustration depicting an African American man violently targeting a white man. A swastika was pictured next to the sender's website, a site full of podcasts glorifying white supremacy. After sharing this on social media, I was made aware that several of my friends received equally racist and anti-semitic letters with different illustrations. Each letter was addressed using a specific observation of a resident's home: someone with a cultivated flower bed had "avid gardener" while someone with a wrestling sign in their yard had "wrestler". Many people recall a suspicious vehicle idling just outside of their homes for several minutes, then driving away, a week prior to this. This means that someone targeted our community and stalked its citizens, invading our privacy and making men, women, and children feel unsafe in the place they should feel most at ease. My goal is to raise enough money to purchase a bulk order of "hate has no home here" signs for the citizens of the Upper Perkiomen community to place in their front yards. This letter makes me feel like anything but a proud American, and I hope that you can find it within yourself to help me make our diverse community feel safe and welcome within their own home.