I knew something was wrong as soon as I saw the story on Drudge.

A woman in Pittsburgh, where a Congressional representative recently had the audacity to peg some of his constituents as (gasp!) racist, suddenly appeared in the news, claiming not only to have been robbed at knifepoint by a 6'4" black man.... He also permanently scarred her face with a "B" for "Barack" because her car featured a McCain sticker. (Indeed, she is a McCain volunteer.)

The whole thing reeked of HOAX. I covered the police beat at one point in my career. Outrageous acts as this rarely happen - unless people do them to themselves. For attention. Or to make a point. Which was exactly the case here.

Today, the police (and to his credit, Drudge) report the woman has confessed. She did it to herself. This was not a racial attack on a Republican white woman. No black man was involved in the making of this racial lie.

Last night, my husband and I had our best friends over for dinner, and while we were making chitchat, the subject came up - before we knew all this hoax business.

Looking over my coffee (as the only Democrat in the room - and, may I say, no less loved for that fact among people who understand we're all Americans), I said, "I think it's going to turn out to be bubkes."

I explained why. It wasn't McCain's doing. It was going to end up being a rash and random act by this young woman and maybe another accomplice. It was meant to outrage people and win her sympathy.

Robbers want money. They don't typically wait around to pontificate to political opponents and leave scarifying statements. That kind of stuff's for the movies, not real life.

And, as it turns out this morning, I am right.

The reports suggest this young woman is mentally ill. I agree you'd have to be to carve a "B" into your face to become a symbol of white victimization.

The other day, I wrote a short essay here about my observations about racism in Pennsylvania. I feared later I'd said too much - and braced myself by remembering it was the truth as I saw it. Then, after I saw almost no reaction from readers, I feared I'd damned myself by saying too little - in that, up to this point, I have remained silent about the racism I see. As, I imagine, so many Americans do.

Mentally ill or no, this woman is an example of something underlying this campaign - and the societal ills that face us whether or not Barack Obama is elected president.

I want things to change. I want people to change. I have always believed we can. This blog, today, is part of my way of saying, from now on, "no more."

Silent no more.