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Gort	http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2013/12/25/va-hospital-refuses-to-accept-merry-christmas-cards/ I'm not sure how we ended up in this strange country.
RPL	Political correctness has gone too far in this country. When children can't wish lonely wounded warriers a Merry Christmas there's something wrong. These people fought to maintain our freedom and way of life.
Gort	quote: Originally posted by RPL: Political correctness has gone too far in this country. When children can't wish lonely wounded warriers a Merry Christmas there's something wrong. These people fought to maintain our freedom and way of life. Wait until Hillary gets in,she's really into the politically correctness.
padroo	According to Holiday Mail for Heroes The American Red Cross has a program to send Christmas cards to hospitalized veterans. http://www.redcross.org/support/get-involved/holiday-mail-for-heroes Here are the guide lines to send cards. Every card received will be screened for hazardous materials and then reviewed by Red Cross volunteers working around the country. Please observe the following guidelines to ensure a quick reviewing process: Ensure that all cards are signed. Use generic salutations such as “Dear Service Member.” Cards addressed to specific individuals can not be delivered through this program. Only cards are being accepted. Do not send or include letters. Do not include email or home addresses on the cards: the program is not meant to foster pen pal relationships. Do not include inserts of any kind, including photos: these items will be removed during the reviewing process. Please refrain from choosing cards with glitter or using loose glitter as it can aggravate health issues of ill and injured warriors. If you are mailing a large quantity of cards, please bundle them and place them in large mailing envelopes or flat rate postal shipping boxes. Each card does not need its own envelope, as envelopes will be removed from all cards before distribution. All holiday greetings should be addressed and sent to: Holiday Mail for Heroes P.O. Box 5456 Capitol Heights, MD 20791-5456 The deadline for having cards to the P.O. Box is December 6th. Holiday cards received after this date cannot be guaranteed delivery This whole process sounds real complicated to me. jmo
padroo	Another article Christmas Cards for Recovering American Soldiers The Army recommends instead making donations to one of the nonprofit organizations dedicated to supporting the troops and their families listed at www.ourmilitary.mil, or to the American Red Cross (see update below). Update: Holiday Mail for Heroes - Beginning in 2006, the American Red Cross instituted a new program to facilitate the collection and distribution of holiday greeting cards for wounded and recovering military personnel at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center and similar facilities. It's called Holiday Mail for Heroes. These rules have been in place for a long time and I feel bad for the children because their hearts were in the right place. This message has been edited by padroo on 12-25-2013 at 03:40 PM
BeWare	quote: Originally posted by RPL: Political correctness has gone too far in this country. When children can't wish lonely wounded warriers a Merry Christmas there's something wrong. These people fought to maintain our freedom and way of life. I agree 1000%. This politically correct crap has gone way past being rediculous. Next thing you know they will be trying to ban Christnas Trees, decorations & lights. No one will be able to mention Santa Clause on TV.
padroo	Nowhere in the rules for Holiday Mail for Heroes by The American Red Cross does it mention that you can't say Merry Christmas. I personally doubt the validity of the article. jmo
ALLEY CAT	www.foxnews.com/opinion/2013/12/25/va-hospital-refuses-to-accept-merry-christmas-cards/ ^^ Well Dale,,maybe you will believe this one, if you can move the channel selector off ABC,NBC,CBS, or CNN? VA hospital refuses to accept 'Merry Christmas' cards By Todd Starnes Published December 25, 2013 A VA official quoted the policy which is in the Veterans Health Administration handbook: "In order to be respectful of our veterans' religious beliefs, all donated holiday cards are reviewed by a multi-disciplinary team of staff led by chaplaincy services and determined if they are appropriate (non-religious) to freely distribute to patients. We regret this process was not fully explained to this group and apologize for any misunderstanding." Hiram Sasser, director of litigation for Liberty Institute, said it was a new low “even for the Scrooges and Grinches at the VA.”
padroo	What other channels are there A/C? lol
padroo	This is what I found and it looks like your quote is not complete A/C. I'll tell you what we should do. Next year the people could send Christmas Cards that say Merry Christmas to our boys in VA hospitals and we could see how it goes. It would be a good thing to do, I didn't think about it myself until the subject came up. I don't have a VA handbook to see for myself. http://www.truthrevolt.org/news/veterans-affairs-rejects-delivery-christmas-card s-wounded-vets According to the Veterans Affairs office, the cards did not meet the "correct" guidelines laid out in the Veterans Health Administration handbook. A VA official stated the following: In order to be respectful of our Veterans religious beliefs, all donated holiday cards are reviewed by a multi-disciplinary team of staff led by Chaplaincy services and determined if they are appropriate (non-religious) to freely distribute to patients. After the review is complete, the holiday cards that reference religious and/or secular tones are then distributed by Chaplaincy Service on a one-on-one basis if the patient agrees to the religious reference in the holiday card donation. The holiday cards that do not contain religious and/or secular tones are distributed freely to patients across the Health Care System. We regret this process was not fully explained to this group and apologize for any misunderstanding. This message has been edited by padroo on 12-26-2013 at 07:37 PM
BeWare	quote: Originally posted by padroo: [B] I'll tell you what we should do. Next year the people could send Christmas Cards that say Merry Christmas to our boys in VA hospitals and we could see how it goes. It would be a good thing to do, I didn't think about it myself until the subject came up. I don't have a VA handbook to see for myself. B] How would we know what happened to the cards sent. I seriously doubt the VA returns them. They likley just throw them in the trash.
padroo	I was just meaning it would be a nice thing to do. If it is addressed to someone by name they should still get it. I am sure we could find names in our local communities and find out what hospital they are in.