The once-was-kinda-relevant ex-politician Jon Pelto recently posted a 1,400-word disturbingly personal rant to my Facebook page. Pelto notes his own age (53) and then my own comparative youth: “Long before you were born, in 1979,” he writes.

He goes on to talk about my personal history (a semester I spent abroad), professional history (as an intern for a member of the British House of Commons) and the fact that I have been to a Renaissance Faire. He found it necessary to point out he knows the date of my college graduation.

He even suggested that, though we’ve never met in person, “perhaps we’ve walked by each other on multiple occasions” and that “I hope someday soon we’ll get a chance to meet.”

He then absurdly states that there’s “no lower form of bullying and abuse” than “the belief that an individual’s family and private life are fair game for political attacks.”

What, Jon, do you consider your post, if not a form of “bullying and abuse?” What, exactly, do you consider a 53 year-old scouring the internet to find information on a 20-something female and posting the information to her Facebook page?

With the deluge of online bullying, harassment and stalking being covered by the media nearly every single day, what was the point of this post if not to intimidate me, to silence me? How am I supposed to feel, as a young woman, when a man 30 years older than I am posts personal details of my life in such a public place?

I won’t be intimidated, Jon.

 
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