# I tried to print it as a new string, this still fails
	my $newOpMode = sprintf "%s", $self->setTheOpMode;
	
	print length($newOpMode) . " $newOpMode ---" . length ($self->setTheOpMode) . " " . $self->setTheOpMode."\n";

	$return = 1 if ( (lc( $newOpMode )) eq "mitigate" ); # panics here