It was the Sun's anvil. Twenty-six states across the drought ravaged Midwest were hammered by a blistering heatwave. It sucked the moisture out of the ground and air in the nation's breadbasket. The drought and heat were a one-two punch making it one of the worst natural disasters in the U.S. And it's far from over.

Texas recorded its driest 12 months ever priming the land for dust storms. The gritty blizzard that blanketed Lubbock was terrifying. A reddish wall of dust and sand 250-miles long and 8,000-feet high rolled over the city and reduced visibility to 5 feet. Another bone-dry storm that covered parts of the panhandle was so massive that it could be seen from space.

Arizona was hit by six sandstorms so far; one that blanketed Phoenix was 4,000-feet high with winds that fanned bush fires and toppled trees. Oklahoma, the home of the Dust Bowl Okies, is experiencing its worst drought since 1921.

Some wonder if the wheel of history is turning back to the Dust Bowl days of the '30s, the Dirty Thirties. But modern farming practices such as planting cover crops, crop rotation, and using underground water from the Ogallala Aquifer for irrigation make this unlikely---or is it?

This year there was not even enough rain to plant cover crops in many states. Crop rotation and use of farm manure for fertilizer have given way to synthetic fertilizer that makes possible planting the same crop year after year. And the Ogallala, which underlies eight states, is alarmingly low with negligible recharge. Some areas have already exhausted their underground water.

Droughts in North America follow a decadinal cycle. Every ten years since the '30s to the present decade there were severe dry spells. The present North American drought has weather patterns similar to the multiyear droughts in the '30s, '50s, and '80s.

Crops are already damaged. For corn it may already be too late even if the drought breaks; irreparable damage has been done. All across America corn is dying and corn is a key part of our food supply.

Fully 75 percent of processed products and fast-food chains use corn as an ingredient. It is also used for chicken and cattle feed.

Corn is also used in the manufacture of thousands of products: ethanol, aluminum, aspirin, cosmetics, cough syrup, batteries, insecticides, vitamins, and dozens more.

If the rains don't come, soybeans and wheat will follow corn.

During the Dust Bowl, 90 percent of the workforce was employed in farming. Many farmers never went hungry while city dwellers waited in soup kitchen lines blocks long. Today only 1 percent is employed in farming.

Put another way, more than 99 percent of the population is coming face-to-face with an agricultural apocalypse.

Can famine strike America?

Farmers used to grow a variety of crops and saved seeds for the next year's planting. No more.

Variety has shrunk to the major crops of corn and soybeans. Farmers no longer save seeds for replanting but purchase genetically identical hybrid seeds. What happened in Ireland 170 years ago explains why these practices could lead to famine in America.

There are more than 5,000 varieties of potatoes. Diversity guaranteed protection against severe weather and plant diseases; there were always some types of potatoes that thrived. But the Irish planted only one type of potato. When a blight hit, the crops failed and one million starved to death.

Our food supply is threatened as never before by drought, depletion of the Ogallala Aquifer, hybrid mega-crops that lack genetic variety, and a dependency on importing 50 percent of chemical fertilizer that is as great as our reliance upon foreign oil. Can the unthinkable happen here as it did in Ireland?

“And I looked up and saw a black horse, and its rider was holding a pair of scales in his hand. And a voice said, 'A loaf of wheat bread or three loaves of barley for a day's pay. And don't waste the olive oil and wine.'” Rev. 6:5,6

Sincerley,

Bob Scroggins

New Milford, PA

On the 9th of August we honored an incredible lady by the name of Edith Stein. She was the quintessential total woman. A Doctor of Philosophy, she wrote on the dignity of womanhood and what true womanhood was. She was a Jewish girl who converted to the Catholic Faith and entered the Discalced Carmelite Order in 1922. She had moved from Germany to the Netherlands to escape persecution but she was arrested and taken to Auschwitz Concentration Camp where she was martyred on Aug. 9, 1942.

Why do I speak of Edith Stein? Simply to preface my belief that women today have forgotten the dignity and power of being a woman. The poles are showing that Barack O’bama leads Mitt Romney in the poles of women. This is primarily because he has promised free contraception pills and a pill to take care of possible conceptions. This lead is because he has convinced women he firmly supports their belief that their bodies are their own and they can do as they wish.

He has ignored Constitutional religious freedom trying to get Catholic institutions to provide that which is against her strongest beliefs. He has granted exceptions to this mandate on health care to smaller religious sects. He is depending on the fact that nearly 50% of Americans are receiving entitlements. He is counting on them to vote for him to keep those entitlements coming, disregarding what has happened in countries who have continued this entitlement mentality.

When anyone speaks out against O’bama's policies they are called racist. I am not a racist but I am prejudiced. I am prejudiced against Socialism as a way of government. It has never worked. I am prejudiced against those who feel killing 50+ million babies, who never had the rights to their body considered is right and good. I am prejudiced against those who ignore history and gain power through any means with a plan that could and would seriously harm our nation.

I am prejudiced against those who do not believe that the United States of America, with all her faults,is the greatest nation ever conceived. I am prejudiced against those who are carefully and systematically removing the historical reality that our great country was based on a strong belief in God. To remove the, "So Help Us God" at the end of Roosevelt's speech after Pearl Harbor from the war memorial in DC is an insult to all those who died keeping our nation free.

But most of all I am prejudiced against those who refuse to let people live their faith publicly and proudly as we have always done. As a woman I firmly feel that ignoring the horrible things O’bama has done against life, and our religious freedoms and elect him who promises anything and only delivers more debt and unemployment would constitute turning our backs on God. You may not like Mitt Romney but he, at least, is a God fearing, lover of the United States.

Sincerely,

Annette Corrigan

Susquehanna County

You are a Democrat and you drink the O’bama drink! You are happy that at the upcoming Democrat Convention in North Carolina your favorite planks (non-negotiable) will be read and presented. You will applaud when they will define marriage  between 2 men or 2 women is ok. You will applaud when abortion (baby killing) has to remain legal. You will cheer when the H.H.S.Mandate (Catholics and most major religions will have to pay for baby-killing drugs) has and will go into effect. You are soooo happy that you will even put an O’bama-Casey sign in your yard and definately put a vote for Casey-Obama sticker on your vechicle. You will proudly wear a Casey-Obama pin on your clothing. You are such a "good" example to teach your children and everyone else that meets you! Satan is very proud of you Democrats. In summary, I'm very glad that I left the Democrat Party years ago.

Sincerely,

Bruce Moorhead

Susquehanna, Pa.