I attended the Susquehanna County Commissioner’s meeting on July 11, 2012 where there was a discussion about the future of Penn State Extension and the 4-H program in Susquehanna County. The commissioners have sent letters terminating the administrative staff for these programs at the end of 2012. When I left the meeting, I was discouraged and embarrassed to be a resident of a county where the future of these programs is in jeopardy because of loss of county financial support.

I was raised in a 4-H family and it has been part of my life for as long as I can remember. I started going to 4-H and extension events before I went to school. My mother was a 4-H leader and advised the clubs where my aunt and older sister were members. I couldn’t wait until I was 8 years, old “4-H age” so I could join in the fun that I admired as a child.

Once I was old enough, I embraced the 4-H program running. As I grew and developed in the 4-H program, I was a member of 6 different clubs with many different focuses. I was active in the 4-H program at the local, county, region and state level holding many leadership positions as I matured in the program. During my final year of 4-H, I was awarded the Outstanding 4-H’er award and received a 4-H scholarship.

As I reflect on my past, I cannot imagine that I would be who I am today if it weren’t for the 4-H program and how it helped me develop leadership and public speaking skills. I learned about setting goals and working hard to achieve them and constantly working “to make the best better”. It helped me mature and develop into the person that I am today. And I met some of my best friends in 4-H whom I still keep in touch with over 20 years later. When I went to college, I considered a career in extension and served two summers as the 4-H Summer Intern in Susquehanna County.

I was raised on a dairy farm and continue to work in the dairy industry. My husband, who I met through 4-H, and I have a dairy farm in Susquehanna County and I also have my own dairy nutrition consulting business. We continue to be involved with 4-H and extension and look forward to becoming 4-H leaders when our 3 children join in a few years. We utilize the services of the extension program by attending dairy educational programs, having extension staff visit our farm, and by participating in the Dairy Day event at Elk Lake School each spring.

When I reflect on the 4-H program and where I am today, I am not sure that I would still be involved in agriculture if it weren’t for 4-H. The program introduced me to so many people with similar interests and those with a similar passion. I learned of all the different career opportunities in agriculture and I made connections with people I keep in touch with over 20 years later. With the changing times, there is less than 2% of the population that is involved in agriculture. If it weren’t for the exposure I received in 4-H, I am not sure that I would have seen the future in agriculture and embraced it as a career. I believe we need to continue to help our youth see there is a future in agriculture and to help educate the next consumers about where their food comes from. 4-H is a great way to start that at a young age.

If I go to any 4-H event, I can’t help but stop and look at the diversity of the youth who are enjoying the program and growing so much on a personal level. You will always have the star athletes and those who do well academically. But it is a program that is for everyone and this is where all kids can flourish and develop into somebody they may have never become in the school system. The young people are learning lifelong skills that can never be taught in the classroom. Some of the best leaders in our community developed these skills through the 4-H program.

As a taxpayer, I believe that we have a commitment to spend a portion of our tax revenues locally in our county to support the programs that help our young people develop into the leaders of tomorrow. They are our future. We must also recognize that there are many volunteers throughout the county who devote their time and offer financial support to the 4-H program. Additionally, the program gets generous support from the businesses in our county who see the value in the program. The program receives a lot of support from those in our communities but they do not have the ability to fund the administrative staff and the 4-H educator position. We need the county’s support for these positions so the volunteers can continue to do the work out in the field with the youth. It is a portion of the budget that cannot be cut without far reaching implications in our communities.

The administrative staff is a fundamental part of the 4-H program but they also play a critical role in the success of the two extension programs in our county. In order for the Dairy/Ag Enterprise Educator and the Family Resiliency Educator to conduct meetings and training sessions and be out in the community working with citizens of our county, they need help in the office with the day to day paperwork and logistics. I spent two summers with the extension program and I can fully appreciate the work that they do to support our field staff. If we turn all of the administrative work back on our educators, we our going to limit the amount of time that they have to devote to their program of work and it will reduce the effectiveness of the programs.

There are further reaching financial implications from eliminating financial support of our 4-H program. In a few short weeks, the Harford Fair will be one of the biggest social events in Susquehanna County. There will be hundreds of 4-H’ers exhibiting their animals at the fair and competing in round-up in the 4-H building. The 4-H program attracts a lot of visitors to the Harford Fair each year and contributes to the local economy. Losing the 4-H presence at the fair would be detrimental to this 155 year tradition in our county.

I am echoing the voices of many others in our county, when I ask that you please contact Commissioners Hall, Giangrieco and Warren and ask them to reconsider the elimination of the county’s financial support of the 4-H program and Penn State Cooperative Extension.

Sincerely,

Dana Harvatine Empet

Harford Township

Iran is at war with the U.S., a shadow war, but a war nevertheless. It has assassinated our nuclear scientists, imposed crippling sanctions, created computer viruses that have damaged our nuclear facilities, and supported terrorist groups within our borders.

But it's the other way 'round as you know. It is the U.S. that is doing this to the Persian state. So why are we harassing a nation that never did nor ever could do any harm to the U.S.?

The causa belli for our belligerence is Iran's supposed nuclear weapons' program. Maybe it's time we ask, what is the evidence that Tehran is seeking an atomic bomb?

Well, for starters, there is no evidence, unless one considers suspicions as evidence. The combined assessment of 16 U.S. intelligence agencies in 2007 was that Iran was not pursing a nuclear weapon. Moreover, Iran has been under the inspection of the International Atomic Energy Agency since 1983.

And in recent years all their nuclear facilities have been under 24/7 TV surveillance. Again, no evidence of clandestine activity. Even their supreme political and religious leader, the Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, declared that such weapons are “religiously unlawful.”

Yet despite this, the U.S.'s war rhetoric continues. Why? There are three reasons.

First, our aggressive posture is the result of the preemptive war against Iraq. Iraq, we were told, was ready to unleash an A-bomb but on whom was not clear. However, after the war it was clear that Iraq had no such weapon or was even remotely capable of making one.

What the war did achieve on the ruins of this former allay was a power vacuum, a vacuum that Iran is in a position to fill. This is perceived as a potential threat to the U.S.'s oil supply.

But since 1979, the year of the Iranian revolution, the U.S. has not imported any oil from Iran. And we seem to be doing just fine, thank you. Even if the U.S. did buy Iranian oil, it would be a mutually advantageous relationship for both buyer and seller.

Second, greed. No surprise here. Greed is part of the human psyche and governments are only a collection of people. It was greed for Iraq's oil that fueled the U.S. invasion. It would be so easy. We would conquer them, the populous would greet us as liberators, and the U.S. would have a boot print in their oilfields.

In this there was a measure of success since the coveted oil is presently under western control. Now we have a lustful eye on Iran's vast reserves.

And third, the U.S.'s all-to-cozy relationship with Israel.

The on-going game of upmanship between Obama and Romney is who loves Israel the most.

Obama's fiscal budget for 2013 calls for $3 billion in security assistance to Israel, part of a 10-year $30 billion commitment. And the president just upped his love gift by $70 million to fund Iron Dome, a mobile air defense system that can shoot down incoming missiles, even artillery shells.

Romney, not to be outdone by the president's pandering for Jewish votes, said through his adviser Dan Senor, “Gov. Romney recognizes Israel's right to defend itself and that it is right for America to stand with it.”

In other words, it is Israel who decides when we go to war with Iran, not Congress, but Israel. Trying to top even that Senor said Romney's policy is zero enrichment of uranium. “[T]he alternative to zero enrichment is the threat of military force,” he said.

This amounts to an ultimatum: either you scrap your entire nuclear program or we will scrap you. An impossible demand.

Iran needs to export as much oil as possible to sustain its socialistic economy. But production has decreased from a peak of 6.1 million barrels/day (bb/day) in 1974 to 3.5 million bb/day. Of this, it consumes 1.2 million bb/day leaving only 2.3 million bb/day for export.

Nuclear energy is a way to curb domestic consumption and increase export. In short, Romney and to a lesser extent, Obama, are demanding from Iran what national necessity and native pride will not and cannot give.

It is ironic that while the U.S. is in the process of withdrawing from two senseless wars, Iraq and Afghanistan, it is busily engaged in the process of bumbling into a third.

Sincerely,

Bob Scroggins

New Milford, PA