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National Wreaths Across America Day, Dec. 17: Remembering our fallen veterans during the holidays

Source image: https://www.foxnews.com/lifestyle/national-wreaths-across-america-day-dec-17-remembering-veterans-holidays

Preparations have been underway for the annual tradition of honoring America’s fallen veterans at holiday time — with National Wreaths Across America Day coming up fast already, on Saturday, Dec. 17, 2022.

The nonprofit Wreaths Across America helps family members, friends, neighbors and volunteers all across the country lay wreaths at the gravestones of those who have served our country. 

The holiday tradition of honoring America’s lost veterans will take place not only at Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington, Virginia — but at over 3,500 locations across the U.S. and worldwide in 2022.

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Wreaths Across America continues to grow year after year — and it ships millions of wreaths to thousands of locations all around the world. 

“This year we’ve seen extreme growth,” Amber Caron, communications director, told Fox News Digital in a phone interview, expressing excitement about the growth of the meaningful gesture toward America’s fallen veterans. 

Wreaths are shown at the foot of headstones in Section 60 of Arlington National Cemetery, in Arlington, Virginia, during a recent December. Volunteers and families place thousands of remembrance wreaths on headstones across the cemetery — and at thousands of other locations — on National Wreaths Across America Day each year.

Wreaths are shown at the foot of headstones in Section 60 of Arlington National Cemetery, in Arlington, Virginia, during a recent December. Volunteers and families place thousands of remembrance wreaths on headstones across the cemetery — and at thousands of other locations — on National Wreaths Across America Day each year.
(Photo by Drew Angerer/Getty Images)

“Over 500 new locations have signed up to participate in National Wreaths Across America Day,” she said.

“Location,” she explained, can refer to any cemetery in which veterans are buried, a memorial, a town square whose residents want to host a ceremony — or some other site where veterans are honored, respected and remembered. 

There is no cost to become a participating location and host a Wreaths Across America ceremony.

“Basically, they’re saying, ‘We want to bring the mission to remember our veterans'” — and any participating, registered locations, said Caron, “will automatically receive eight ceremonial wreaths” from Wreaths Across America as part of the holiday remembrance  

Each of those wreaths stands for a branch of the military, plus for POWs and MIAs. 

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“For us,” she said, “it’s exciting because people who participate [at one site] then often want to bring the event to their own communities” the following year.

A child is shown carrying a wreath to a grave during the Wreaths Across America annual event at Arlington National Cemetery, on Saturday, Dec. 12, 2015, in Arlington, Virginia. 

A child is shown carrying a wreath to a grave during the Wreaths Across America annual event at Arlington National Cemetery, on Saturday, Dec. 12, 2015, in Arlington, Virginia. 
(AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

“And that’s how this continues to grow.”

There is no cost to become a participating location and host a Wreaths Across America ceremony.

Caron noted, “There is a lot of tough stuff going on in the country and in the world. And it goes to show that — no matter what your background is, or your beliefs are — most people can agree on this: Our veterans are worthy of honoring. Their families are worthy of honoring. And it’s important during this holiday season to take time out to say ‘thank you.’”

All year long, Wreaths Across America does work for living veterans as well — to “remember, honor and teach” people about veterans’ dedication to our country.

Caron also said they’re bringing in new groups each year and working with new partners and different organizations.

She also emphasized that all year long, Wreaths Across America does work for living veterans as well — to “remember, honor and teach” people across the country about our veterans and their dedication to the country. 

“There are many ways for people to be involved all year ’round,” she said.

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Participating organizations can raise money and funds for their veterans and their own work — “and those funds are making a difference” throughout the year, said Caron.  

Wreaths lay covered in snow next to markers at Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington, Virginia, on Jan. 6, 2015, after a small winter storm.  

Wreaths lay covered in snow next to markers at Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington, Virginia, on Jan. 6, 2015, after a small winter storm.  
(Photo by JIM WATSON/AFP via Getty Images)

“In many homes, there is an empty seat for [a loved] one who is serving or one who made the ultimate sacrifice for our country,” the organization notes on its website.

“There is no better time to express our appreciation than during the hustle and bustle of the holiday season. We hope you will join us at any of our … participating locations to show our veterans and their families that we will not forget. We will never forget,” the organization also says.

“There is no better time to express our appreciation than during the hustle and bustle of the holiday season.”

Caron said that this year, Wreaths Across America is expecting some three million volunteers to come out nationally to lay wreaths at veterans’ graves and burial sites for the holidays on Saturday, Dec. 17, 2022. 

Any VFW, American Legion or other organization that would like to help its own local veterans throughout the year — as well as participate in National Wreaths Across America Day on Dec. 17, 2022 — can go to the nonprofit’s website at www.wreathsacrossamerica.org to learn more.

A veteran holds the hand of a child as they honor America's deceased veterans in a cemetery — with all gravesites adorned with a holiday wreath thanks to Wreaths Across America.

A veteran holds the hand of a child as they honor America’s deceased veterans in a cemetery — with all gravesites adorned with a holiday wreath thanks to Wreaths Across America.
(Wreaths Across America)

“It’s an event for the community — plus people can learn more about the veterans in their local community … and that includes the children. Kids can learn what veterans have done,” said Caron.

There is still plenty of time to sign up, by the way, for National Wreaths Across America Day this year. 

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Added Sean Sullivan, public relations manager for Wreaths Across America, “This organization started as just one family who wanted to make a kind gesture toward veterans at Arlington National Cemetery. And so many people loved the idea of what they were doing — and they were the ones who have grown this organization and built it to what it is today.”

He added, “It is really word of mouth” that has helped grow the group.

Karen Worcester is executive director of Wreaths Across America. She and her husband, Morrill Worcester, who founded the nonprofit organization, remain actively involved in WAA and its multitude of efforts to this day. 

Karen Worcester is executive director of Wreaths Across America. She and her husband, Morrill Worcester, who founded the nonprofit organization, remain actively involved in WAA and its multitude of efforts to this day. 
(Fox News)

The organization’s mobile education exhibit, by the way, starts its national tour in California in mid-January. 

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It’s a museum on wheels, essentially, the organization says. It has a small movie theater and exhibits and activities for kids, and operates as a “welcome home” unit for many veterans in America, especially Vietnam veterans who generally were not welcomed home and respected when they first returned from war.

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Morrill Worcester, founder of Wreaths Across America and owner of Worcester Wreath Company of Harrington, Maine — his wife Karen Worcester, who is executive director — remain actively involved to this day.

Added Caron, “Morrill still donates all of the wreaths that go to all of the locations.”

For more information and to learn how to participate, anyone can visit www.wreathsacrossamerica.org

Source: https://www.foxnews.com/lifestyle/national-wreaths-across-america-day-dec-17-remembering-veterans-holidays

Politics

Dianne Feinstein described by WaPo, NYT, AP as ‘centrist’ Dem despite progressive voting record

The liberal media are portraying the late California Sen. Dianne Feinstein as a “centrist Democrat” despite her progressive voting record. 

Feinstein, who died Thursday night at age 90, is being widely remembered as a trailblazer for women in the Congress. 

According to FiveThirtyEight’s congressional voting tracker last updated at the conclusion of the 116th Congress in January, Feinstein’s record was “100%” aligned with President Biden

However, obituaries published by several news organizations are raising eyebrows for how they describe her politics. 

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Senator Dianne Feinstein obituary photo

Senator Dianne Feinstein has died at age 90.  (Fox News)

The Washington Post ran the headline “Dianne Feinstein, centrist stalwart of the Senate, dies at 90” while also calling her a “centrist Democrat” on social media. 

In the obituary, The Post declared she was “centrist from the start,” citing the fact that “for a time, Mrs. Feinstein owned a handgun” and quoting her biographer who once said how early in her career she “started talking about how the center is so important.” The Post then quickly pivoted to her work pushing the federal assault weapons ban in the 1990s. 

The New York Times similarly reported that Feinstein “called herself a political centrist” but went even further by saying she “often embraced conservative ideas.”

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Washington Post Feinstein headline

The Washington Post declared Feinstein the “centrist stalwart of the Senate” in its obituary of the Democrat lawmaker.  (Fox News Digital)

NBC News wrote about Feinstein, “A centrist Democrat, she was known for trying to find common ground with Republicans, sometimes drawing criticism from her party’s liberal members.”

The Daily Beast alleged Feinstein was “steeped in centrist policies no longer fit the times,” citing her “warm embrace” of Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., during the contentious 2020 Supreme Court confirmation of Justice Amy Coney Barrett as an example. 

The Associated Press tried to have it both ways, calling her a “centrist Democrat” who was a “passionate advocate for liberal priorities.” The AP’s report was aggregated by several news outlets including PBS NewsHour. 

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The Los Angeles Times said she “was a centrist who leaned left.”

“She often irked Democratic constituencies. Her party moved sharply to the left on immigration over her time in the Senate, but Feinstein maintained more centrist positions,” the California paper wrote. “She favored stiffer security at the border, punishment for those who illegally employed migrants, and penalties for the so-called coyotes who smuggled them into the United States.”

Dianne Feinstein 1992

Dianne Feinstein the Mayor of San Francisco at the Democratic National Convention in 1992 running for Senate. (Mark Reinstein/Corbis via Getty Images)

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Politico cited a 2015 profile of Feinstein from The New Yorker in its obituary, quoting, “Feinstein is sometimes described as a centrist, but it is because her views are varied, not because they are mild; she thinks of herself, more accurately, as a pragmatist.”

Other outlets suggested there was a debate over Feinstein’s politics among critics. ABC News wrote, “Her independence was often seen in more recent years as too moderate compared to other Democrats, especially as a representative of one of the country’s most reliably blue states,” despite her 100% voting record with Biden. 

Deadline Hollywood called her a “moderate Democrat” in its report but wrote on social media she was “considered by some to be a centrist Democrat and to the Right a far-left advocate.”

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House Republicans to vote on ‘clean’ stopgap funding bill despite conservative outrage

The House of Representatives will vote Saturday on a short-term spending bill aimed at avoiding a government shutdown.

The funding patch would last for 45 days past the end of the fiscal year, which concludes at midnight Sunday, Oct. 1. The bill would also include $16 billion for U.S. disaster relief aid that President Biden requested over the summer, Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., said on Saturday. 

The bill would also be a “clean” extension of the current year’s funding priorities, which were set by the Democrat-held Congress last year.

It comes after House Republicans tried and failed to pass a stopgap funding bill, known as a continuing resolution (CR), filled with conservative policy items like border security and spending cuts.

The bill is being expedited past normal processes, and will need two-thirds of the House for approval — meaning Democrats will have to vote in favor of the plan for it to pass.

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House Speaker Kevin McCarthy

Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., talks to reporters just after the Republican majority in the House narrowly passed a sweeping debt ceiling package as they try to push President Joe Biden into negotiations on federal spending, at the Capitol in Washington, Wednesday, April 26, 2023.  (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

“We need more time to get the job done,” McCarthy told reporters ahead of the vote. McCarthy said he did not want to “punish” military service members or border agents for the House’s failure to pass a budget that ends wasteful spending and addresses border security.

“The House is going to act so government will not shut down. We will put a clean funding stopgap on the floor to keep government open for 45 days for the House and Senate to get their work done,” McCarthy also said. “We will also, knowing what had transpired through the summer, the disasters in Florida, the horrendous fire in Hawaii, and also disasters in California and Vermont, we will put the supplemental portion that the president asked for in disaster there too.”

Republicans’ previous CR proposals did not get any Democratic support, and failed after enough GOP hardliners opposed them. Holdouts argued that a CR on principle is an extension of the previous Democratically-held Congress’ priorities, and is the antithesis of the House GOP majority’s promise to pass 12 individual spending bills laying out conservative priorities in the next fiscal year.

The Democratic leaders

Top Democrats huddled for an emergency meeting after the CR was proposed (Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images)

But the majority of lawmakers on both sides have acknowledged that some kind of stopgap is needed to give them more time to cobble those deals together. The current fiscal year ends at midnight tonight, meaning that if no agreement is passed by the House and Senate, thousands of government employees will be furloughed and “nonessential” federal programs will grind to a halt.

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And despite Democrats clamoring for a “clean” CR, it’s not immediately clear if they will support the bill being put forward by the GOP now. 

Rep. Andy Barr, R-Ky., told Fox News Digital that he believes Democrats will vote against the CR to hold out for the Senate’s proposal, which also includes funding for Ukraine aid – something a large share of House Republicans oppose.

U.S. President Joe Biden

The GOP proposal includes President Biden’s call for disaster relief aid. (Photographer: Jacquelyn Martin/AP/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

“I think this may fail because Democrats in the House want a Senate CR,” Barr said. “So what could happen is a pretty low vote number on this…you’ll have Democrats who are voting to shut the government down. And that’s what you’re gonna see. Democrats want to politicize this, and they’re gonna vote to shut the government down.”

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House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., would not say where he would fall when speaking to reporters before the vote but complained about Republicans having “dropped this on us in the 11th hour.”

House Republicans “lied every single step of the way,” Jeffries said.

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Ramaswamy, Burgum reject Gingrich’s claim that ‘the race is over,’ Trump will be GOP nominee

GOP presidential candidates Vivek Ramaswamy and North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum rejected claims from former House Speaker Newt Gingrich that “the race is over” and former President Donald Trump is the definitive 2024 Republican nominee at this time.

On “The Ingraham Angle” Thursday, Gingrich said Trump will absolutely be the nominee, and that the lower-tier candidates must ask themselves if they want to get behind him or watch President Biden get re-elected.

“There’s no middle ground here, I don’t think, because you’re either going to get Trump as president or are you going to Biden. And Biden’s re-election would be a disaster for the country,” Gingrich said.

Burgum, polling last among the candidates who qualified for the second GOP primary debate Wednesday on FOX Business, said he has long been told the things he seeks cannot be achieved.

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He said he was written off as a gubernatorial candidate in the previous North Dakota Republican primary by double digits, but has since found himself in the top job in Bismarck.

Burgum underlined that he was a strong supporter of Trump’s in his past two electoral runs, but that he has since been outpolling the former president in the Flickertail State’s GOP primary.

“I appreciate Newt’s comments, but listen, I’ve spent my whole life having people tell me what I can’t be and can’t accomplish. So I’d say get in line with everybody else,” Burgum said.

“They said you can’t build a global tech company in North Dakota: We built one with 2000 people. We built a $1 billion company. We did it with kids from small town, and we ended up with customers in 132 around the world.”

Burgun noted how in 2016, he trailed then-North Dakota Attorney General Wayne Stenehjem in major primary polls but ended up pulling off an upset, then winning the general election and being re-elected again in 2020.

“I’ve said all along, I’m going to be voting for the Republican. I’m running against Joe Biden. Joe Biden’s policies on the economy, energy, national security, 180 degrees in the wrong direction. And then I’ve got again, I’ve got more business experience than the rest of the candidates on stage last night,” he added.

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Burgum said a top issue for him is American energy independence, claiming North Dakota has more production potential than many OPEC nations the U.S. currently buys oil from and adding China’s IP theft and influence threats are another major concern.

Ramaswamy also disagreed with the contention Trump’s nomination is a lock. He argued Wednesday’s debate was somewhat proof the field needs to be pared down, but that he has taken a different tact toward Trump than his opponets.

While former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie spent much of the night antagonizing Trump, dubbing him “Donald Duck” for ducking the debate, Ramaswamy said he personally believes the mogul has been the best president in the 21st century.

“Everybody else is making their case versus Trump by bashing him and Monday morning quarterbacking some decision he made. My view is different,” he said.

“I acknowledge he was the greatest president of the 21st century so far, but I have something that he doesn’t, Laura. And it’s really simple. I’m young. I have fresh legs. I’m able to reach the next generation in a way that Trump cannot. That’s undeniable – And that’s how we’re going to take the America First movement to the next level.”

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Ramaswamy said that no matter who wins the GOP primary, the winning message belongs to America First movement championed by Trump, himself and others.

“My whole point is I’m an America first conservative, not a Trump first conservative, and not of a big first conservative. And so I’m the one person in this race. I’m not tearing anybody else down,” he added.

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