So Much Unsaid You Won’t Say
Two more wise corporations leaving the hate group, American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC)
Two more institutions, one commercial and one non-profit, have announced that they will part ways with the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC). The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation provided an education grant to ALEC, and will not be making future grants. The foundation said it would not award another grant to the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) in the face of criticism of the council’s involvement in voting laws and in “stand your ground” gun laws such as one under scrutiny in the Trayvon Martin shooting in Florida. “At this point, we’ve decided that it’s not the right environment to continue working with them,” Gates Foundation spokesman Chris Williams told Reuters on Tuesday.
The split will take effect once the Gates Foundation pays the balance of a $376,000 education grant that it awarded to the conservative group last year, Williams said.
As the result of the Color of Change campaign to educate and agitate among the corporate sponsors of ALEC, McDonald’s has been proactive in clarifying their position with ALEC. They told Mother Jones that “it recently decided to cut ties with ALEC, the corporate-backed group that drafts pro-free-market legislation for state lawmakers around the country.” “While [we] were a member of ALEC in 2011, we evaluate all professional memberships annually and made the business decision not to renew in 2012,” Ashlee Yingling, a McDonald’s spokeswoman, wrote in an email. Yingling didn’t mention any specific campaign or outside pressure as playing a role in the company’s decision to leave ALEC.
(click here to continue reading Daily Kos: McDonalds, Gates Foundation to sever ties with ALEC.)