Last month, the citizens of the newly seceded Walesburg elected Annabelle Winston as their first Mayor. Mayor Winston has taken several official actions to position Walesburg as a destination for families and businesses. This morning, the Mayor opened her media session with the announcement that the official spelling of Walesburg will be changed to its original spelling of Whalesburg. This seemingly innocuous move quickly gained traction with the locals, swiftly pivoting the discussion from the new town’s independent development projects to, spelling?

Mayor Winston said, “After overwhelming and intense feedback from life-long Walesburg residents, I’ve directed the official spelling of Walesburg to return to its original form, Whalesburg, with an “H”. We are in the business of restoring Walesburg to its former glory and then surpassing that with light speed. This symbolic measure shows the world, we are back! While the “H” is a just a throwaway letter to some, to many others it represents a time when this city had honor, heroes, heart, hope, honesty, homes, and most importantly, humanity,” she said.

The “H” was removed in 1963 after a cruel hate crime gesture centered around the H on the Whalesburg oversized neon town sign. After today’s announcement, #wHalesburgRises and #FreeWalesburg were the top 2 trending topics on CNPS Stream. There is decisive division locally, evidenced by these social media posts,

IamMe247 posted, “#wHalesburgRises is historically good for our deceased, the wealth generated from this project is historic”

UnionJacque posted, “#FreeWalesburg should be trending forever y’all. My life will not be cursed by this H. We are supposed to be billding (sic) our city not playing games like this”

DonutDarma365 posted, “We are finally going to be respected again, this Mayor walks the walk #wHalesburgRises”

HobertHomes posted, “Him, Her, a couple of otHer important H’s that need reintroducing to society #wHalesburgRises”

In response to HobertHomes post, UjiliString441 commented, “@HobertHomes, here are some other H words present during the Whalesburg era – HORROR, HATE, HYSTERIA, HOMELESS, HUMILIATION, HOMICIDE!!! What did the W say to the A in WALESBURG??? There is no space for H in this place!!! #FreeWalesburg”

SurveyShaunDra posted, ” Hey #wHalesburgRises traitors, look at the data, 57% are against this illegal name change. This isn’t what we voted for @MayorWinston. Fix this or folks are gonna hit the streets to fix you!!! #FreeWalesburg”

As often witnessed during the brief history of social media, what happens online can eventually happen offline, in other words, the real world. Mayor Winston’s symbolic gesture to appease a vociferous segment of Walesburg has now divided a united populace over, spelling?