Folks.
Just for the record, as I explained to an IRATE!!!! BEE-L member who thought I was trying to further spread libelous information, my inquiry re the article was genuine, and submitted with respect to the one group I believed could expertly support or debunk it,  i.e. I was seeking clarification.

This email account does NOT show up on my iphone or ipad, so I had received the article via my gmail account from my local VA beekeeper group and was concerned, not knowing what to do with it and being both relatively new at beekeeping and a backyard beekeeper, NOT a scientist or expert. I had NOT been able to read all the BEE-L news prior to sending the query, so was not up to date on all of the developments.

I am now feeling a bit shocked at the response and anger directed at me and trying to get my head around the fact that an honest inquiry would have released such venom. It was quite a surprise to be so bombarded.

However, I understand that this is a very emotional time and that Jerry is a member of the community (sorry, too new on this to even know that, or to put his email address together with the author in the first place)....so, I'm just going to swallow really really hard and let the nastiness fade into oblivion without escalating.

I would like to ask you all a question, though: 
Is this an open forum in which it is safe to ask questions without having folks then descend aggressively on one's personal email? OR am I going to rapidly have to learn the lesson that it is not an open fair forum, but one fraught with politics and that I need to be very careful in watching my step?

In the interest of goodwill and curiosity and 'learning', I hope the former rather than the latter.

Andrea

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