TO: MEH et al RE: Attorney General Martha Coakley's office and Garden Clubs and Taliban and Terrorists. Okay, it may seem petty, asking for financial records from garden clubs, but if one is in the business of raising money, than one must accept the responsibilities that come with the job. Not every organization is honest, nor is every business run efficiently or ethically, as we have witnessed in the past few years. I am sure that Attorney General Coakley's office is asking all non- profit organizations and businesses who lag behind in declaring income to get with the program and take care of their affairs. How scared and frightened could someone really be...? No boogeymen are going to come in the middle of the night... just balance the checkbooks, declare finances, like adults in business, and deal! I am sorry to sound so matter-of-fact, but that is the job of the employees in the office of the Attorney General. Tell me, do you complain and get frightened when the IRS expects to receive your tax returns by the 15th of April? AND shouldn't we be glad that they are doing what their are paid to do... their jobs! AND... garden clubs have NOTHING to do with the Taliban and "*terrorist(s) in Afganistan..."* Nor should they! Oh yes, and at least spell the name of the country correctly! It is Afghanistan. I am peeved. I think that too many people are pulling at straws these days to criticize the very folks willing to go into the political arena for us just because it makes for good political fodder for the opposing party's candidate. Cut Attorney General Coakley and her office some slack and be grateful that she has dedicated so much of her life and her energy towards justice! Grrr-rr!!!! What has happened in this country...? We have become packs of rabid wolves ready to lunge, destroying and tearing down men and women for the most inane reasons, plain ugly subterfuges... Remember the "Big Lie"? That is exactly how it worked in 1939. Remember? Peace, Love, Understanding....??? This might interest you. The news seems to be filled with this kind of "communication" these days: From: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Propaganda *Propaganda is a form of communication aimed at influencing the attitude of a community toward some cause or position. As opposed to impartially providing information, propaganda in its most basic sense, presents information primarily to influence an audience. Propaganda often presents facts selectively (thus possibly lying by omission ) to encourage a particular synthesis, or uses loaded messages to produce an emotional rather than rational response to the information presented. The desired result is a change of the attitude toward the subject in the target audience to further a political agenda. * *Propaganda is neutrally defined as a systematic form of purposeful persuasion that attempts to influence the emotions, attitudes, opinions, and actions of specified target audiences for ideological, political or commercial purposes through the controlled transmission of one-sided messages (which may or may not be factual) via mass and direct media channels."* * -- Richard Alan Nelson, A Chronology and Glossary of Propaganda in the United States, 1996* *The English term is an 18th century coinage, from the Latin feminine gerund of **propagare "to propagate", originally in Congregatio de Propaganda Fide "Congregation for Propagating the Faith," a committee of cardinals established 1622 by Gregory XV its turn, the word **propagare is related to the word **propages, "a slip, a cutting of a vine" (1) and refers to the gardener's practice to disseminate plants by planting shoots. (2) It seems as gardeners, there must be a far kinder way to propagate. Thank you. - PR Norfolknet.com your community, on-line