Locals Spar Over Right to Debate Social Issues on Hyattsville Online Community

Recent chatter on a Hyattsville email list started out with Occupy D.C. and ended up with some members asking to be removed from the online community.

Bill Jenkins, a member of the HOPE list wrote the following post on Nov. 11, Veterans Day:

"I have been volunteering at the Freedom Plaza free kitchen since the occupation began a month ago. We feed 50-100 people every day with healthy, mostly veg. food. Please donate anything, especially produce, olive oil, coffee/tea, nuts. I'm one of the people who takes the  money donations and I then shop at local stores and coops as well."

That post along with a flurry of responses to it, including one from John Aquilino, culled inflamed responses from some readers, including list moderator Jim Groves:

"Now, now. John's a 1%er who has benefited well and increased his vast wealth over the last few years. He enjoys paying his tax money to bail out the banks and especially like paying higher bank and credit card fees and seeing the largest corporations not pay taxes ... Also, if the people there are poor, it's their own fault for not working harder, right?"

Groves eventually told one poster, a Hyattsville resident, that the HOPE list, which is open to any who post respectfully about the area and issues effecting it, is:

"That's about right. If you want to sling right wing BS on a Listserve you should do it elsewhere. This is NOT a city Listserve nor does the city have anything to do with it. I started the Listserve, I moderate, I run it, I get to decide who is on or off and what is appropriate or not."

What do you think about the role of local listservs and online communities?