The Hopkinton Center for the Arts kicked off their summer concert series on Friday night with live performances from Hot Acoustics and The Fat City Band. Judging from the spontaneous Mardi Gras dance line that formed it’s safe to say everyone had a good time.
Also in attendance were School Committee member Susan Stephenson, Housing Authority Chair Nancy “Punky” Drawe, and Darlene Hayes, who recently resigned from several elected boards in town. Drawe shared the update below (since deleted) with members of the Hopkinton Uncommon Facebook group.
Hubris.
It’s disgusting. They’ve learned nothing from all of this.
This is a slap in the face to those harmed. Ms. Hayes is beyond corrupt, yet here she is smiling as if she has done no damage to the DNC in town, or the many Boards she conned her way onto. Her credentials are pathetic, and it is shocking that this woman tried to run so much in town, overtly and covertly. This triad’s group defiance of the voice of the people is disturbing. They either do not care about the damage they have done, or are so myopic that they think they still have a wealth of community support and goodwill.
Regardless, please stay away from public events and all politics for a while, all three of you. You serve at the pleasure of the townspeople, and not to promote a singular obsession. Then, and only then, will voter confidence begin to be restored. Do the right thing. Lie low in shame for election tampering, even though the DNC in Hopkinton did NOT need to rig the outcomes. Another example of sort term thinking by people incapable of personal reflection seeing the professional and bigger picture – they were elected to serve the town, not exploit it. Darlene, which of your twenty-four personas is in this photo? Just curious.
Chris Swezey
~Libertarian – watching the town’s DNC implode~
Is this the Fat City Band?
Darlene Hayes has no shame.
Punky and Susan aren’t exactly upstanding citizens, either. Yes, Darlene created 20+ fraudulent accounts to steer public conversation, but those two were also caught manipulating the public in order to sway the election. The three of them should be removed from all publicly held positions immediately. I don’t understand why they are being given a pass.
The online trolling continues. What a slap in the face to the community and people they have harmed.
The HCA was thrilled to have Hot Acoustics and the Fat City Band open the Summer Arts Series this weekend.
What exactly is the newsworthy thing here? and why would an HCA event be filed under politics? And if there is something political here, maybe state it rather than rely on insinuation? There’s plenty of drama on Facebook without the local “news” site feeding the flames with this nonsense.
Are you unaware of what these 3 people have done or does it just not bother you? It seems pretty obvious why this is filed under politics and why it is relevant news. That said, I think it would be appropriate to amend this article and imbed links to previous articles covering their disgraceful and unethical behavior.
Jason, you do realize that if HopNews did not cover relevant information, ONLY available to women, that is directly related to the malfeasance of these three; HopNews would be denying the service and political role of the Fourth Column to the 50% male population in town who have a right to know what 5,000 voters are discussing on a closed forum based on sex. To deny that social media groups consisting of up to 5,000 members can sway votes is unrealistic.
I thank HOPNEWS for covering every aspect of this ongoing gerrymandering in town elections. Three women should be investigated and held to legal account for fraud and election tampering. That is obvious, yet this is not being done.
I treasure being an American with a right to free and fair elections. Anyone who interferes with the right to a valid vote that counts is un-American, likely a Communist, and should be incarcerated according to the laws I am aware of.
Instead of holding these three to account in the court of public opinion, they should be in a court of law where the penalties matter. The post of a defiant photo of three absolute clowns is not funny. They are flipping us all a bird that is not welcome. Instead of apologizing and trying to rebuild their damaged images, they have doubled down.
It is infuriating, and I wish nothing but shame for these three trolls moving forward. Their disdain for us is unacceptable and should be shouted from the rooftops until they leave. Twenty-four personalities? Why is Darlene not being sectioned and committed for psychiatric review? Multiple Personality Disorder is a serious condition that she is either mocking, or encountering.
At some point, talk is cheap. Actions speak louder than words, so I would like to see legal action for denying many of us a free and fair election. To me, the rest of this is just noise. The only thing I care about is their arrogance while flaunting their disrespect for Federal law. These fools assumed they owned the town’s politics, the election outcomes, and the power that comes along with winning – legally or not.
Remember what the Bible said – “Absolute Power Corrupts Absolutely” : 2 Samuel 11:1-15
~Chris Swezey, Libertarian, begging these three to go away and allow the town to move ahead peacefully.
My original comment was about HopNews either glomming Facebook drama onto an article that started out about the HCA event or somehow conflating the two. Whether that was intentional isn’t clear to me, but they seem largely unrelated, it gives short shrift to the HCA, and the piece was heavier on insinuation than explanation or elucidation.
If the “Facebook drama” is more than just drama, as you suggest, and that was the focus of the piece, then the author could have been more clear about the intent. Some of your comments are a more robust articulation of a concern than I see in the piece, but I also see a good number of personal attacks floating around the comments in general. There’s plenty of legitimate fodder for complaint, and there are better ways to articulate those complaints.
In response to Jason, Nancy Drawe posted this to a social media site as a dig. What would be her intention to tell others “they good” other than to say their hurtful actions haven’t made a single difference to them? She didn’t post this just on her page, she posted it on a huge community page of women. The actions (and lack of action) of Darlene Hayes and the HDTC has caused unbelievable damage to our election process, town’s reputation, and our ability to work in unity for the good of our community. This is a political post. In regards to Hopkinton UnCommon even though it is a social media site is also really a “local press” because with close to 5k members it has a lot of reach. We’ve seen how much influence it truly has in town. So it is hard to not report on it. I think HopNews is doing a good job of keeping everyone updated on the continued lack of respect these people hold for Hopkinton and its residents.
I’m here for it. Honestly, Hop Independent throws the soft balls, which I appreciate, too. HopNews digs a little deeper. More provocative? Maybe, but in order to clean up our act as a town, we need to expose the truths and people that have harmed our community. We’re never going to get quality candidates to run for the SC or SB if there is fear of retribution and dragging reputations through the mud of lies and misinformation.
The most recent addition of the Independent stated that Hayes resigned due to “online controversy,” rather than calling her out for the harm she caused like HopNews has and continues to. Bravo, Hopnews!
Someone correct me if I am wrong, but Darlene has connections with Hop Independent. They’ve repeatedly shown their bias when reporting on this story.
Seems odd to me that HopNews is going to police Facebook community posts and comments but, that aside, if that’s the intent then the piece’s author(s) should be more clear. It’s starting to feel more like yet another echo chamber and I think the journalistic bar could be raised a bit on this piece.
Thanks for your feedback, Mr. Heyd. Perhaps you’ll enjoy our latest attempt. Trying to raise the bar a little, as you say. https://old.hopnews.com/the-ten-most-expensive-homes-in-hopkinton/
I disagree. It seems relevant and noteworthy to share that 3 individuals who were recently exposed as being liars and frauds took to a local group to mock the community they’ve harmed.
No one should be shocked that 3 people this corrupted and without respect for the people of this town would behave like this. It’s clearly all a big joke to them.
A lot of us are thrilled to witness the insidious actions of Darlene finally seeing the light of day. I was fooled by one or more of her many personas on HopNews during this past campaign season and over the years she has hurt many people in this town who I am close to. Facts surrounding the HDTC’s actions and continued protection of Darlene over the years should be sought out and published in articles for public consumption. But this stupid Facebook group drama being portrayed as news is just gross. It sinks to her level and lower.
In the future I hope that HopNews prioritizes highlighting the positive contributions the HCA has made to the community over tarnishing a community organization in a flagrant attempt to garner more clicks on a monetized news site with strategies that are more at home in tabloids and half-cracked conspiracy sites than a local news site.
Thank you for your comment. As for our commitment to the HCA, we submit the following for your consideration. Needless to say, we’re big fans.
https://old.hopnews.com/hopkinton-comes-together-for-summer-concert-series-at-hca/
https://old.hopnews.com/hhs-senior-fitzpatrick-presents-art-show-at-hca
https://old.hopnews.com/hca-presents-award-winning-play-featuring-neurodiverse-lead
https://old.hopnews.com/hca-teens-amaze-on-open-mic-night
https://old.hopnews.com/event/hca-open-house
https://old.hopnews.com/event/hca-comedy-night
“There’s no such thing as bad publicity, as long as they spell your name right”. That famous quote is credited to American showman and circus owner P.T. Barnum (1810-1891).
Right when you think they can’t go any lower…they might as well all be holding a “peace plant” and a sign that says, “sorry, not sorry.”
A more appropriate caption would be “misery loves company.”