Mayor Ethan Berkowitz of Anchorage Alaska

6/30/2016

Mayor Ethan Berkowitz

Office of the Mayor

c/o Anchorage City Hall

Suite 840

632 W 6^th Avenue

Anchorage, AK  99501

Dear Mayor Berkowitz,

My name is Matt Winick from Ann Arbor, Michigan with a strong interest in studying history and public policy. What I like to learn from these subjects is the need to advance on Civil Rights to help protect people who are different from being discriminated, protect the environment from pollution, and many others.  The main reason I’m writing you a letter is because I find your work as current Mayor of Anchorage to be very inspiring to me.

In your current role as Mayor of Anchorage, I like on how you are a strong supporter of advancing Civil Rights to help protect women, minorities, and people with disabilities from being discriminated in education, jobs, and public places. Also on Civil Rights, I am very proud of you for working hard to help Native American communities get the resources they need to do well in the economy or other services they need, fund women with minorities businesses to help them compete in the economy, express the need for women to have equal pay to help them from being discriminated in pay, and advocate for people with disabilities’ rights. Pushing for community policing to help improve relations between communities and police, expanding treatment programs to help drug users get the care they need so they won’t be addicted to drugs, implementing training programs to help train police officers with firefighters to help prepare them when they have to help protect the public, supporting programs to help victims of crime or victims of domestic violence get help, and improving food inspection data to help the public know if the food is safe to eat or help food service improve on food safety are great ways to reducing crime while improving public safety.  On the environment, I like on your commitment to support renewable energy (solar, wind, biofuel, and energy efficient products) to help reduce addiction to oil with gas, create a program to help engage youth including Alaskans who live in Anchorage to help clean up parks to reduce trash littering, and expand services to help collect trash with recycling to help reduce littering in communities.  Your business approach like creating job-training programs to help train youth including workers to develop job skills to help prepare them for the workforce, reducing high fees on small business to help them do well in the economy with helping the community, and encouraging businesses to use energy efficient products to help protect them from high energy cost are great ideas to help improve the economy with making communities a better place.

I have Autism with a learning disability, Having a disability is hard for me because I have trouble comprehending on learning different subjects especially new things, sometime I struggle to communicate my thoughts, and get teased.  Mayor Berkowitz, your commitment to be a strong supporter of Civil Rights and be an advocate for people with disabilities’ rights really inspires me to work hard on Autism.  Also your current role as Mayor of Anchorage on different issues helps me continue being motivated to learn history including public policy. My future goal is to someday teach people history in order to learn the need to make Civil Rights stronger to help end discrimination, protect the environment from pollution, the need for diversity including recognizing people from different backgrounds, and many others.  Your commitment to work with business communities, environmental groups, Native American groups, women including minorities groups, and people with disabilities to make society better is a great inspiration to me to understand the need for government to work together with the people in order to move forward on different issues.

You are making a great difference as Mayor of Anchorage, Alaska on different issues. I’m proud on how you are working hard to make great achievements. Mayor Berkowitz, you have truly inspired me to work hard on Autism and to continue my interest in learning history with public policy.  Thanks for taking the time to read my letter, working hard to make great achievements as current Mayor, and inspiring me.  I hope someday I can get a chance to meet you because you are a true role model for me.  I wish you well on continuing your role as Mayor of Anchorage to make society better.

Sincerely,

Matt Winick

Honorable Bill White from Houston, Texas

9/13/2016

The Honorable Bill White

c/o Lazard Freres & Co. LLC

600 Travis Street, Suite 2300

Houston, TX  77002

Dear Honorable White,

My name is Matt Winick from Ann Arbor, Michigan and I have a strong interest in learning history and public policy. In these subjects I like to learn the need to make Civil Rights stronger to help protect people who are different from being discriminated, protect the environment from pollution, and many others.  Honorable White, the main reason I’m writing you a letter is because I find your work as 60^th Mayor of Houston, Texas to be very inspiring to me.

When you served as 60^th Mayor of Houston Texas, I was very proud on how you are a strong supporter of Civil Rights to help protect women, minorities, and people with disabilities from being discriminated in education, public places, and jobs.  Also on Civil Rights, I liked on how you supported funding women including minorities businesses to help them compete in the economy, advocated for people with disabilities’ rights, supported the need for women to have equal pay, and expanded laws to combat against hate-crime to help protect people who are different.  During the Hurricane Katrina, I was amazed on how you had the courage to give residents of New Orleans along with victims of the disasters to shelter in Houston including implement programs to help assist them to find jobs, get an education, and provide them with the care they need.  As a result of this, I was very proud on how you won The John F. Kennedy Profile in Courage Award for being committed to help people.  Also when Hurricane Rita came to Houston, I liked on how you worked hard to help citizens of Houston find shelter including give them tips on how to prepare themselves during the hurricane.   In order to reduce obesity rate, I liked on how you created Mayor’s Wellness Council research ways to reduce obesity rates and launched Get Moving Houston program to encourage fitness programs along with educational awareness about nutrition.  Funding renewable energy projects to reduce addiction to oil with gas, launching Benzene Action Plan to monitor benzene emissions along with reduce it in the air to improve public health, providing funds to clean up parks with water resources to make them safe for people to use, pushing for Stop Trashing Houston program to help teach people about the need to reduce littering, and encouraging businesses along with industries to energy efficient products to reduce high energy cost while protect the environment is common sense to make the environment a better place for people, the economy, and public health.  On education reform, I like your approach to improving it like establish Expectation Graduation to have flexibility on requirements to help reduce high school drop-out rates, fund special education to help students with disabilities get the educational resources they need, expand funds on arts including history to make education diverse, and implement after school programs to help youth get help on their assignments or provide recreation programs to help them from getting involve in crime.  On the economy, I like on how you pushed for job-training programs to help train youth along with workers to improve their work skills to help prepare them for the workforce, reduce property taxes on middle class including low-income people to help them afford a home, and reduce high fees on small businesses to help them be part of the community.   

Honorable White, I have Autism with a learning disability. Having it 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 and be an advocate for people with disabilities’ rights really inspire me to work hard on my disability.  Your record on protecting the environment motivated me to be interested in becoming a volunteer at Ann Arbor Hands-On Museum, a children science museum where I work with other volunteers to teach children about the need to protect the environment through hands-on demonstrations and watch different documentaries about the need to protect the environment along with learn different ideas to reduce pollution.  Your role as 60^th Mayor of Houston motivates me to continue my interest in learning history including public policy.  My future goal is to someday work in public policy to find ways to create common sense ideas to make society better.

Honorable White, I strongly believe that you made a great difference as 60^th Mayor of Houston on different issues.  I’m very proud on how you worked hard to make a difference for society through reform and having the courage to help the victims of hurricane. You have inspired me to work hard on my disability, be interested in becoming a volunteer, and continue my interest in history with public policy. Here is a picture of me as a gift to you for inspiring me. I was wondering if you could please share with me your favorite achievements as Mayor of Houston and your advice about public policy or reducing the national debt.  Thanks for taking the time to read my letter, working hard to make great achievements, and inspiring me. I wish you well for the future and to continue to advocate for great common sense ideas to make society better.

Sincerely,

Matt Winick

U.S. House of Representative Judy Chu from California's 27th District

7/12/2016

Congresswoman Judy Chu 

2423 Rayburn House Office Building

Washington, D.C.  20515

Dear Congresswoman Chu,

My name is Matthew Winick, an Asian American from Ann Arbor, Michigan with a strong interest in studying history.   The main reason I have a strong interest in studying history is to understand and learning the need to advance on Civil Rights to help protect people who are different from discrimination, a strong need to protect the environment from pollution, have healthcare reform to help people with pre-existing conditions or who can’t afford insurance get the care they need, and a strong need for immigration reform to help protect refugees, immigrants, illegal immigrants from oppressive countries.  The main reason I’m writing you a letter is because I find your work as a U.S. House of Representative from California 27^th   District and as Chairwoman of CAPAC to be very inspiring to me 

In your role as U.S. House of Representative from California 27^th District, I really like on your commitment to help advance on Civil Rights and advocate for the need to help protect people with disabilities, minorities, women, people with different sexual orientation from being discriminated in public places, jobs, education, and pay.  Also on people with disabilities issue, I really like on your support on helping expand the ADA to help protect people with disabilities in education like me.  Congresswoman Chu, you have a great record on protecting the environment by supporting renewable energy like wind, solar, safe biofuel, and energy efficient products as energy sources to reduce our addiction to oil with gas, voting against the Keystone Pipeline to help protect lands, famers, and water from a future oil spill, and helping extend tax credit to help business who work on creating clean energy jobs.  On reforming Congress including elections I liked on how you supported an legislation STOCK Act to ban insider trading in Congress to reduce Congressional members from abusing tax payers money or using non-public information for their own profit and being a co-sponsor of the Disclosure Act to make campaigns including corporations with special interest groups disclosure to the public on their donations to a campaign or in an election to help public know who is putting money in elections or who is funding their campaign. In your current role as Chairwoman of CAPAC, I really like your commitment to support the need for Asian American diversity by finding ways to educate the public including Congress, protect with advancing on Civil Rights to help reduce discrimination, help give reparations to Asian including Asian Americans that were discriminated in the past to heal minorities communities including Asian Americans with Asians, support Asian Americans with disabilities’ rights, and advocate for the need for immigration reform to help immigrant, illegal immigrants, and refugees reunite with their family members or get protection from oppressive government in different countries. 

Congresswoman Chu, 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 on Civil Rights and help people with disabilities really inspires me to work hard on Autism.  Being an Asian American with a disability is hard for me because some Asian along with some Asian Americans tease me about having a disability and they believe that I don’t meet their standards or fit in their culture. Also in your role as Chairwoman of CAPAC on helping spread awareness about Asian American, Asian with Pacific Islanders and advocating for Asian Americans with disabilities really motivates me to be proud to be an Asian American with a disability and to continue my interest in Asian with Asian American culture.  Your work as Congresswoman and as current chairwoman of CAPAC really inspires me to continue learning history. My future goal is to someday teach history to help people understand the need to make Civil Rights stronger to end discrimination, emphasize the need for diversity to make society better, and many others.  

I strongly believe that you are making a great difference for society, Civil Rights, and Asian American Pacific Islanders in your current role as Congresswoman from California 32^nd District and as Chairwoman of CAPAC. You have truly inspired me to work hard on my disability, be proud to be an Asian American with a disability, and  continue my interest in learning history with Asian culture.  Also on July 8^th 2016 when you did a FACEBOOK Q&A I was very happy that you replied back to my question and giving me a chance to mail my letter of appreciation of your work with how you inspire me.  Thanks so much for taking the time to reply back to me on Facebook and I really had a great experience for the first time participating on Facebook Q&A with a Congresswoman.  Thanks for taking the time to read my letter, making a great difference on different issues, and inspiring me. I wish you well to continue to advocate for great ideas to make society better. 

Sincerely,

Matt Winick

Former Mayor Kurt Schmoke of Baltimore, Maryland

10/18/2016

President Kurt L. Schmoke

c/o Office of the President

University of Baltimore

1420 North Charles Street

Baltimore, MD  21201-5779

Dear President Schmoke,

My name is Matt Winick from Ann Arbor, Michigan and I have a strong interest in learning history including public policy.  In these subjects, I like to learn the need to advance on Civil Rights to help protect people who are different from being discriminated, protect the environment from pollution, find ways to help people who are low-income get the help they need, and many others.  President Schmoke, the main reason I’m writing you a letter is because I find your work as 46^th Mayor of Baltimore to be very inspiring to me.

In December 1987, I liked on how you made history by becoming the first elected African-American to become Mayor of Baltimore, Maryland.  When you served as 46^th Mayor of Baltimore, I am very proud on how you are a strong supporter of making Civil Rights stronger to help protect women, minorities, and people with disabilities from being discriminated in education, jobs, and public places.  Also on Civil Rights, I liked on how you advocated for people with disabilities’ rights, expressed the need to expand women’s rights to health care with protection from being discriminated, worked with minorities communities including African American communities to help them get the funding they need to help their community along with improve race relations, and pushed funds for women including minorities businesses to help them compete in the economy.  Pushing for funds to clean up parks including water resources to help reduce pollution along with make them safe for people to use, expanding renewable energy projects to help reduce addiction to oil with gas, and encouraging businesses along with industries to use energy efficient products to help reduce high energy cost are great ways to protect the environment.   Push for job-training programs to help youth including workers develop job-skills to help prepare them for the economy and expand funding for low-income housing projects to help provide people who are homeless or people who are low-income get shelter is common sense to improve the economy while helping people who are low-income.   To improve education, I liked on how you pushed for funding special education to help students with disabilities get educational resources that they need, expanded on funding for arts including diversity classes to help make education diverse, and promoted on literacy programs to help youth including adults who are illiterate improve on their reading skills.  Your commitment to reform War on Drugs like expand on education to help address the need to reduce drug addiction, push for treatment programs to help rehabilitate drug-users get the care they need, treat drug addiction as a public health, and propose a fine for when a person is carrying a small amount of a drug are great ideas for reform. After you left your role as Mayor of Baltimore, I am very proud on how you continue to advocate for people with disabilities’ rights, express the need to make Civil Rights stronger, the need to end racial profiling in the criminal justice system, make education a better place for learning, and many others.

President Schmoke, 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 and be an advocate for disabilities’ rights really inspire me to work hard on my disability.  Your work as 46^th Mayor of Baltimore motivates me to continue my interest in learning history including public policy.  Also your commitment to make social justice a better place and reforming the War on Drugs got me really interested in watching documentaries about the need to reform social justice, reading articles along with listening to NPR or Bill Moyers about the need for reform to make society better.  My future goal is to someday work in public policy to help create common sense ideas to make society a better place.

President Schmoke, I strongly believe that you that you made a great difference as Mayor of Baltimore.  I’m very proud on how you worked hard to make great achievements when there were challenges. Here is a picture of me as a gift to you for inspiring me.   You have truly inspired me to work hard on my disability, continue my interest in learning history, and understand the need to make social justice a better place.  Thanks for taking the time to read my letter, making great achievements, and inspiring me.  I wish you well in you current role as President of University of Baltimore and to continue to advocate for common sense ideas to make society a better place.

Sincerely,

Matt Winick

President Amy Gutmann of University of Pennsylvania

10/12/2016

President Amy Gutmann

Office of the President

c/o University of Pennsylvania

1 College Hall, Room 100

Philadelphia, PA  19104-6380

Dear President Gutmann,

My name is Matt Winick from Ann Arbor, Michigan with a strong interest in learning history and public policy.  In these subjects, I like to learn the need to make Civil Rights stronger to reduce discrimination,  protect the environment from pollution, need for government reform with ethics reform to reduce corruption, and many others.  President Gutmann, the main reason I’m writing you a letter is because I find your work as 8^th President of University of Pennsylvania and your activism to make society better to be very inspiring to me.

In your current role as President of University of Pennsylvania, I like on how you are a strong advocate for the need to make Civil Rights stronger to help protect women, minorities, and people with disabilities from being discriminated in public and education. Another thing is I like on how you advocate for people with disabilities’ rights to help protect them from being discriminated. Also I am proud of your commitment to improve diversity in University of Penn by working to hire women including minorities to work in faculty positions, expanding on funds for diversity classes to help people understand about culture, and working with minorities including women and people with disabilities to find ways to make learning a better environment.  In 2009, I was very proud on how accepted President Obama’s appointment to chair the Presidential Commission for the Study of Bioethical Issues to find ways to improve biomedicine, explore different areas of technology along with science can play a role in medicine,  work on creating ethics for medicine, and find ways to fund research for these projects.  Another thing that I like is how you are committed to make American history a better place in your role board of trustees of the National Constitution Center to help make the education of the U.S. Constitution a great way to help educate people through education software, make exhibits have a clear message, and many others.  Also I like on how you advocate for the need for campaign finance reform like reducing money from corporations including lobbying groups to candidates, push for more disclosure to help voters know who is donating or funding money to a campaign, need to ban lobbyist gifts to legislative members along with members of their staff, and many others.

President Gutmann, 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 advocate for Civil Rights, be a strong supporter of making diversity a better place, and be an advocate for people with disabilities’ rights really inspires me to work hard on my disability.  In summer 2013, I enjoyed visiting the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia Pennsylvania because I enjoyed learning about the founding fathers, history of the U.S. Constitution, different amendments in the constitution, and many others. Also the museum did a great job helping me with my disability because the educational interactive technology did an excellent job interpreting the U.S. Constitution, when watching clips or listening to audio it had close captions to help me understand about the topic, and many others.  Your role as President of U of Penn and as an advocate for making society a better place motivates me to continue my interest in learning history with public policy.  My future goal is to someday work in public policy to help shape up common sense ideas to make society better and to continue my interest in learning history by visiting historical sites along with museums.  Another thing is your commitment to advocate for ethics reform with campaign finance reform motivates me to understand the need for these things to help reduce corruption in government along with elections.

I strongly believe that you are making a great difference for society. I’m very proud on how you are working hard to make a great difference as President of U of Penn and as an advocate.  You including your work have inspired me to work hard on my disability, visit the National Constitution Center, be motivated to continue my interest in learning history with public policy, and even learn the need for ethics reform with campaign finance reform. Here is a picture of me as a gift to you for inspiring me. Thanks for taking the time to read my letter, making a great difference for society including history, and inspiring me. I wish you well in your current role as President of University of Pennsylvania and continue to make great impact.  I hope I get a chance to meet you because you are a true inspiration to me and a great role model for me.        

Sincerely,

Matt Winick