Seeing the news, made me think of the Salem Witch Hunts. As I studied the causes of the hunts, I was startled to learn that the people doing this "hunting" had many things in common with us today. In the late 1600's in the Salem Massachusetts area, they were having unusually cold weather and food shortages. They were experiencing a serious economic downturn and people were fighting over control of their village. The wealthy merchants wanted to see more development and the farmers wanted the area to remain agrarian. On top of all this stress many people were ill. A fungus blight was causing strange hallucinations.
