Our own Nicole Belle was interviewed by Matthew Emmer at Messaging Matters this week, and I thought you all might enjoy reading it, especially her thoughts on why she does what she does here:

In terms of becoming active, I was invited to a “Young Leaders of Tomorrow” conference in high school (which was really a recruitment seminar for the Young Republicans) and ended up angering Gen. Norman Schwarzkopf, who spoke to us about American exceptionalism, for challenging his conservative talking points—this was during the Reagan administration—and although the convention organizers shushed me, I took great victory in knowing he knew that I had got the best of him.

Most recently, it was the Bush administration, from his extra-constitutional installation in the White House to 9/11 and the invasion of Iraq and Afghanistan that demanded I not stay silent. I saw the conflation the Bush administration made to justify the invasion and the horribly ignorant smearing of Muslims and it enraged me. Not only the politics of hate, but more importantly, that the media enabled the politicians and have never been held accountable. Moreover, I have two kids that I feel obligated to fight for. Everything I do is informed by my desire to leave my daughters a better world than we have now.

There's some inside stuff on why and how she came to be part of the Amato "family", too. Read the whole thing. There's a version at the Examiner too.