Mayor James Kenney of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

7/04/2017

Mayor Jim Kenney

c/o Office of the Mayor

City Hall

Room 215

1401 John F Kennedy Blvd.

Philadelphia, PA  19102

Dear Mayor Kenney,

My name is Matt Winick from Ann Arbor, Michigan with a strong interest in learning history with public policy.  In these subjects, I like to learn the importance of making Civil Rights stronger to reduce discrimination, protect the environment from pollution, and many others.  Mayor Kenney, the main reason I’m writing you a letter is to explain how I find your work as 99^th Mayor of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania to be very inspiring to me and share with you about my experience in visiting Philadelphia.

In your current role as Mayor of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, I’m very proud on how you are a strong supporter of Civil Rights by advocating for people with disabilities’ rights, pushing for funds to help women including minorities businesses to help them compete in the economy, expressing the need for women to have equal pay, and expanding laws to combat against hate-crime in order to protect people who are different including minorities. Your approach on protecting the environment working with city services to test paint including housing to reduce lead poisoning to help protect people who live in houses including children, initiating a goal make Philadelphia be 100% renewable energy including supporting renewable energy projects to reduce addiction to oil with gas, and creating volunteer programs to help clean up the city from litter is common sense. Funding special education to help students with disabilities get educational resources they need to help assist them to learn, providing educational software to classrooms to help student get access to research different topics, expanding on after school programs to help youth get help on their assignments or get them engaged in recreation programs to keep them off from the streets, and pushing for literacy programs to help assist people who are illiterate on comprehension skills. Hire police officers to help patrol the streets, expand on community policing to help improve relations between law enforcement with the communities, push for drug treatment programs to help drug-users get the care they need in order to reduce drug addiction, work on creating training programs to help train emergency services staff to be prepared to deal with emergencies are great ways to improve public safety while reduce crime.  Your commitment to improve social justice like working with other religious organizations to provide safe-haven for immigrants including refugees from being oppressed and expressing the need to end racial profiling in law enforcement to help protect minorities is common sense. Another thing that I liked about your role as mayor is how you are a strong supporter of pushing for funds to help preserve with restore historical sites including museums with attractions to improve tourism along with make learning a better place.

Mayor Kenney, I have autism with a learning disability. Having a disability is hard for me because I have trouble comprehending on learning different subjects, sometimes I struggle to communicate my thoughts, and get teased.. your commitment to be a strong supporter of Civil Rights including people with disabilities’ rights really inspires me to work hard on my disability.  A few years ago I visited Philadelphia and enjoy seeing the Betsy Ross House where I got to learn about Ms. Betsy Ross’s life with the origin of making the American Flag, The National Constitution Center which did a great job explaining the origin of the U.S. Constitution including the facts about the Founding Fathers, Ben Franklin historical site to understand Ben Franklin’s life including some of his inventions, Independence Hall where I toured the Independence Hall where I got to learn where they founding fathers created the Declaration of Independence and  finally seeing the Liberty Bell statue where I learn how the Liberty Bell play a significant role in American history.  These sites really did a great job helping me answer some questions from the staff, have close caption when there was a movie explaining about the American Revolution which helped me comprehend on what the topic was, and really helped me feel comfortable when I struggle with autism.  Your work as Mayor of Philadelphia drives me to continue to be motivated to learn history including public policy.  My future goal is to someday visit all the historical sites including attractions in Philly and to work in a history job to help emphasize the need to make Civil Rights stronger along with express the need to improve social justice.

I strongly believe that you are doing an excellent job making a great difference for society. I’m very proud on how you are working hard to make Civil Rights stronger, improve social justice, and many others.  You have inspired me to work hard on my disability, be motivated to learn history, and your work helped benefit my visit to Philly.  My letter is a gift to you for inspiring me and to wish you a Happy Birthday for August 7^th . Thanks for taking the time to read my letter, making a great impact on different issues, and inspiring me. I wish you well to continue to make a great difference.

Sincerely,

Matt Winick