Northern Exposure’s Janine Turner has turned to writing. She is the founder and Co-Chair, along with Cathy Gillespie, of the, uh, conservative leaning website Constituting America. The tagline at the top of the site (attributed to Turner) states, “An enlightened America regarding her roots, her basis, and her thesis is the key to America’s pertinent survival.” While I think Constituting America is a bit right-wing for Rush Limbaugh me, it is a great example of women using their talents and sharing their opinions in an intelligent and appropriate forum.
Although best known as Maggie O’Connell, Turner has evidently been politically active for some time.
From her bio:
[Turner’s] op-ed commentary articles have been published in media outlets such as FoxNews.com, and she has appeared on numerous television and radio talk shows including Fox and Friends, Hannity, Glenn Beck, The O’Reilly Factor, Neil Cavuto, Larry King Live, Laura Ingraham, William Bennett, Lou Dobbs and the Steve Gill Show.
Janine proudly served as a member of President Bush’s Council on Service and Civic Participation and continues to encourage volunteerism across the country. She has volunteered and raised money for numerous charitable efforts such as Boys & Girls Clubs of America, My Sister’s Place, the Pregnancy Resource Council, Texas Ballet Theatre, the Lois Weber Film Collection, the USA Film Festival, the Inwood House, and Single Parent Outreach of Richland Hills Church of Christ. She is a sought after public speaker, and has inspired audiences in locations such as Saddleback Church, Texas A&M, Union Gospel Mission of Tarrant County, and at breast cancer events, single parent outreach and Special Olympic events.
While not a household name, Gillespie also has quite a resume.
She has served as Chief of Staff to United States Congressman Joe Barton, as a Commissioner on the President’s Commission on White House Fellows, and as the Director of the Bush Cheney ’04 W Stands for Women.
Cathy is active in a number of political and charitable organizations, serving on the board of Good Shepherd Housing and Family Services, the Joe Barton Family Foundation, and the Board of Governors of Bishop Ireton High School in Alexandria, Virginia. She has volunteered and raised funds for the Barbara Bush Literacy Foundation Maryland Celebration of Reading, Independent Women’s Forum, Foundation to Eradicate Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy, Histiocytosis Association of America, and the Texas State Society.
Like any good bureaucratic endeavor, Constituting America has a mission statement which is, in my opinion, kind of sneaky. Basically it starts out with blazing patriotism rhetoric so that, by the time you reach the snarky digs at the left-wing (accusations that liberals view the Constitution as “antiquated,” for example, or “devalue freedom”), you’re singing “The Star Spangled Banner” so loudly that you won’t realize it.
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