Corporate America's Sunshine Patriots

[marmar]

Published on Thursday, July 21, 2011 by CommonDreams.org
Corporate America's Sunshine Patriots

by Michael Winship


We went to Mount Vernon in Virginia a few weeks ago. It was the first time I'd been to George Washington's family estate since a whirlwind day tour of Washington, DC, when I was a high school freshman. Our guide then was a fast-talking cabdriver who interlaced his rapid-fire wisecracks with an impressive command of facts and figures, many of which may even have been correct.

Today, the Washington plantation, once in sorry shape, has been beautifully restored, from mansion to slave quarters. At two, state-of-the-art visitor and education centers, sightseers can learn all about the great man's life and times, including a sound and light presentation on battles of the American Revolution that features howling wind and falling "snowflakes" -- tiny bits of soapsuds pumped into the theater -- when Washington crosses the Delaware.

The whole thing isn't run by the National Park Service, as you might have expected, but by a private, nonprofit organization, the genteelly named Mount Vernon Ladies' Association (MVLA), which raises money from ticket sales, food, souvenirs and money from individuals, foundations and corporations.

A lot of money. According to the MVLA's most recent annual report, "In 2010, 47,242 individuals, corporations, and foundations contributed more than $17 million to the Mount Vernon cause." With George Washington a favored Founding Father of the American right, no small amount of those funds have come from such conservative contributors as the Heritage Foundation, the F.M. Kirby Foundation, the Richard and Helen DeVos Foundation, the Mars family of candy bar fame, and newspaper publisher Richard Mellon Scaife. .............(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.commondreams.org/view/2011/07/21-1