Correction for a stupid Answer.

When trying to be polite, was not the right decision.

The gentleman across the street from us came over to acquire about selling our house, which we had no intention of doing. While he was there he asked, “Do you really believe all that stuff about solar?” Such a question was a little insulting, because we just had spent months being ridiculed for taking a stand on our research on the negative effects of solar energy, research that we still stand by. At the time, we just wanted to get along with the guy and be polite. We had grown up with his two daughters, and not had any problems with his family. The last thing we wanted to do was get into an argument, especially about solar energy.

The guy was obviously not informed, or he wouldn’t have asked such an apparently stupid question. So, rather than interpret the inquiry as slide of hands to insult our intelligence, we gave him the benefit of the doubt, and assumed he was genuinely inquiring for some reason. Even if we had confirmed the blantantly obvious truth of our beliefs with a simple “yes”, there was still the opportunity of an argument to occurr, and that was what we were trying to avoid. So, admittedly we did the wrong thing, and that was to do the same thing anyone else in that situation. We told him what he wanted to hear,and have come to regret it ever since.

Within an hour of the interaction, we realized the gentleman was playing us for a fool, and was intentionally trying to trick us. He was going to turn right around and tell every one in town that we really didn’t believe in anything we had stood up for. At the time, we hoped that anyone with a nickel’s worth of sense would have been able to rationalize their way through the conflicting messages. Our greatest fault in the incident is we had possessed too much faith in humanity. Within hours people started to drive by the house staring us down. Our act of charity and desire to not get in an argument would be used as fodder for a smear campaign against our family.

Throughout everything that has happened to us since 2016, never once did anyone actually read the material provided in our references, and attack those references. Sure, Charles called an “expert” in renewable energy, the guy was an expert in biomass renewables (burning of woodchips), not photovoltaics. So, he was outside of his area of expertise, but the newspaper left that little tidbit out. He did not read, nor was he familiar with our references either. We know, because we emailed him and asked him so. Instead, everyone did what simple minded people do, they attacked our integrity and smeared our name. Weak minded people do this, because they are incapable of formulating a valid argument in defense of their claims.