Bill Moyers

11/17/14

Mr. Bill Moyers

Public Affairs Television

250 West 57th Street

Suite 718

New York, NY 10107

Dear Mr. Moyers,

My name is Matthew Winick and I am a fan of your show The Bill Moyer Show.  Your show and you make a great example of what the new media should be today because you and the Moyer media do such a great job connecting with people on their issues, explain about the issues that we face today, and by explaining the need for reform to end the abuse of authorities, corruption of elections with politicians from special interest groups, financial institutions, and lobbying groups.  Mr. Moyers, you are a true inspiration for me because you with your work on your show really helped get me interested in studying history to learn not to repeat the same mistakes, understand the need to advance on Civil Rights for people who are different (minorities, gender, people with different orientation, and people with disabilities) to end discrimination, protect the environment from pollution by using renewable energy with environment protection, Voter’s protection with registration rights, have checks and balances to protect people’s civil liberties when dealing with crime, and government reform to reduce corruptions with dark money in elections.  Mr. Moyers, I have autism with a learning disability. Having a disability is hard for me because I have trouble comprehending on learning new subjects, it also takes me longer to learn new things at a normal pace, and I get teased by other people. You have made a difference for me to be interested in learning history and making your shows with news reporting and interviews easy for me to comprehend on understanding the world, issues, and history.   I heard that you were ending your show in January and I wanted to say thank you for making the news media fair with your approach by expanding on different ideas to improve our future, bring common sense to viewers like me about different issues, and having interviews where there is a balance between you and the guest. Also thank you for getting me inspired to be motivated to learn history and I will remember on how you made a great difference for me, history, the media, and the world. I wish you well when you retire. I plan for the future to use my ideas with learning from history to teach people about the need to make a world a better place with Civil Rights to end discrimination, protect the environment using renewable energy from pollution, have government reform to end corruption with money influence in elections, and a checks and balances to protect people’s civil liberties when dealing with crime.  Thanks for taking the time to read my letter and I am sending you a copy of my story about working on my struggles with how you made a great difference for me. My story is a present for you for your hard work and your activism really helped me get inspired to write a story about my life with working hard to overcome my struggle.

Sincerely,

Matthew B. Winick

These are the DVDs of Mr. Bill Moyer's work that he sent me. 

Robert Redford, American Actor

9/5/2014

Robert Redford

Sundance Resort

8841 N. ALPINE Loop Road

Sundance, UT 84604-5338

Dear Mr. Redford,

My name is Matthew Winick and I enjoy watching you act in movies.  My favorite movies are War Hunt, Barefoot in the Park, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, All The President’s Men, The Sting, and the Brubaker.  Mr. Redford I though you did a great job teaming up with Mr. Paul Newman on The Sting and Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. You both really made these movies great.  Mr. Redford I really have a strong interest in learning different subjects like history, environment, and the criminal justice system. I really enjoy learning these subjects so I can learn more about how society works and learn the needs for reform to make a world a better place.  The Brubaker movie where you played as a prison warden working to reform the system got me really interested in learning about the criminal justice system. After watching that movie it made me take an Intro To Criminal Justice class at Washtenaw Community College in Ann Arbor, Michigan.  The class was very interesting and I got to learn how the system works, the courts, law enforcement, civil liberties, and laws. The class got me really interested and you when you played in Brubaker on working on new ideas to reform the Criminal Justice System by alternative sentencing for non-violent criminals including victimless criminals, more rehab programs to reduce drug abuse, more rights for juveniles, more educational programs to help address the need to reduce gun violence with drug abuse, and the need to protect our civil liberties from being violated.  As a person who likes historical movies I really thought you did a great job playing The Sundance Kid and also in All The President’s Men I thought you did a great job playing Bob Woodward.

Mr. Redford I am also amazed by your work as an activist to protect the environment and I agree with you the need to protect the environment. I believe that same thing you do is clean energy like wind, solar, and energy efficient products to help protect the environment from pollution and high energy cost. Keep up the good work advocating for a better environment. Also I look forward to see you play in movies in the future. Keep up the good work on addressing the need to protect the environment and support equal rights.

Sincerely,

Matthew Winick

Governor Steve Bullock of Montana

11/10/2014

Governor Steve Bullock

Office of the Governor

PO Box 200801

Helena, MT 59620-0801

Dear Governor Bullock,

My name is Matthew Winick with a strong interest in history from Ann Arbor, Michigan. The reason I am writing you a letter is because I find your work as an Attorney General of Montana and later as Governor of Montana on advocating for campaign finance reform very inspiring to me.  I strongly believe that campaign finance reform is an important issue and there is a strong need for it; to reduce corruption in elections, reduce dark money influence from different groups (special interest groups, PACs, non-profit groups, and outside money from different states), reduce lobbying groups influence on political members like Congressional, Judicial, governors, and state with local electives from being corrupted by their money, and make the system to be fair for voters or constituents.  After the Supreme Court sided with Citizen United with many other lobbying groups by saying money is freedom of speech I was amazed when you were an Attorney General of Montana challenging the Supreme Court ruling by defending your state’s campaign finance law banning corporate campaign expenditures.  Even though the Supreme Court didn’t side with your state with your effort to defend Montana’s law, I am very proud of you for making a great example not only for Montana, but for me and the rest of our country by advocating the need for campaign finance reform with your ideas to make elections fairer, and reducing corruption in the political system.  

 After watching you on the news advocating for campaign finance reform I decided to do more research about your ideas for campaign finance reform and I am amazed that you are still continuing on working with both parties as Governor of Montana on campaign finance reform.  I recently studied you idea called TRACE(Transparency, Reporting and Accountability in Campaigns and Elections) and I like the ideas that you worked on with State Senator Jim Peterson, a Republican. TRACE has great ideas like limiting how much money a candidate running for office can get from a political committee, require all major donors to be identified through public disclosure, prohibit corporate and union contributions to a candidate (except for voluntary contributions from an employee or a member of an organization), and many others.

As a voter, an American, and with a strong interest in history I strongly believe that there is a need for campaign finance reform for our country and in American History to not repeat the same mistakes, help improve voters confidence to participate in elections, reduce corruption in elections including political office, reduce money influence in elections, candidates or with political career, end the lobbying influence with special interest groups, and reduce wasteful spending. From a history perspective I strongly believe that you Governor Bullock make a great difference for our country and history by being a true advocate for campaign finance reform with government reform. I Also I am proud of you as a moderate Democrat for standing up to the lobbying groups by siding with the people, I strongly believe that you can make a difference for our country, and for political parties.  Thanks for taking the time to read my letter. I appreciate with respect for your work on campaign finance reform that both political parties ignore. I wish you well continuing being Governor of Montana and continue fighting for our values to make our country more democratic with campaign finance reform with government reform. I am proud to call you a true American influential on advocating for change and reform.

Sincerely,

Matthew B. Winick

Governor Peter Shumlin of Vermont

10/27/14

Governor Peter Shumlin

Executive Office of Governor Peter Shumlin

109 State Street, Pavilion

Montpelier, VT 05609

Dear Governor Shumlin,

My name is Matthew Winick from Ann Arbor, Michigan.  I find your ideas very inspiring to me and your ideas are important for history and our country.  Governor Shumlin, I myself like studying history, political science, criminal justice, and some business with some science. I enjoy learning these subjects because I want to learn on how to improve society by understanding the need for reform like Health care reform to help people with pre-existing conditions or who need care to get access to a health care with not getting rejected by insurance companies, a need to fix the criminal justice system by reforming sentencing for non-violent offenders with extending more rights for juveniles, advance on Civil Rights to end discrimination for people who are different, the need to better protect the environment by using renewable energy with environment protection to reduce pollution, and many others. Learning and studying these different subjects gets me interested on working with creating new ideas.  

In my winter semester last year I took Intro to Criminal Justice class and I really enjoyed learning about how the system works, the court system, civil liberties, and the need for reform to have checks and balances in the system.  My instructor got me interested in looking up on different alternative ways to fix the system.  I did some research and it helped me generate ideas like the need to extend rights for juveniles, a strong need for alternative sentencing for non-violent offenders like community service, more treatment programs with counsel to help drug addicts or drug users from being addicted to drugs, some regulations on gun sales by having background checks, and education programs to address the need to reduce drug abuse with gun violence. I enjoyed learning about the system and the strong need to reform the system. Governor Schumlin, I decided to do some research about you and I find your work with idea to reform the criminal justice system inspiring to me. I am amazed by your approach by finding ways to reduce non-violent offenders from serving a jail sentence by having programs to help rehabilitate them, more treatment programs to help reduce drug addiction with drug abuse, and having checks with balance on legalizing marijuana with some regulations like fines or treatment programs instead of facing harsh sentencing.  I find your approach to be common sense.

Besides your work on reforming the criminal justice system I find your other work with stance inspiring to me like advocating for a better health care system like single payer system to help people get the health care they need, supporting environment protection by using renewable energy to reduce pollution with staying away from fracking, advancing on Civil Rights to end discrimination for people who are different, and finally support same-sex marriage and equal partnership to even make Civil Rights stronger.  In my opinion from a history perspective I believe that you are making a great difference with leading great examples for our country to learn new ideas with common sense reform.  I wish you well on continuing your role as Governor of Vermont and to continue working on new reforms to make a great difference not only for your state, but your our country, and for me. Thanks for taking the time to read my letter.

Sincerely,

Matthew B. Winick 

Governor Deval Patrick

10/13/14

Governor Deval Patrick

Office of the Governor

Massachusetts State House

24 Beacon Street

Room 105

Boston, MA 02133

Dear Governor Patrick,

My name is Matthew Winick from Ann Arbor, Michigan. My main interest is history, government, and world culture. These subjects are my favorite because I like to learn how to improve society through ideas, the need to advance on Civil Rights to help protect people who are different from discrimination, a strong need to protect the environment by using clean alternative resources from pollution, and many others. Governor Patrick, I read your book: “A Reason to Believe Lesson From An Improbable Life”.  A Reason To Believe Lesson From An Improbable Life helped me understand your early life on how you overcame your struggles through being on welfare, how your father left you when you were young, and going to public schools which was sometime violent. Your book was moving because it described on how many people including teachers, and mentors help guide you to help overcome your struggles and have confidence including helping you get in different careers.  Governor Patrick, your story and book really help inspire me to have faith when times are hard because I have Autism with a learning disability.  Having a disability is hard for me because I have trouble comprehending on learning new subjects, having trouble fitting in with other people, and getting teased by other people. However in my life there has been people, some teachers, Pamela Anne who worked with me on speech therapy to help me improve on my speech, and people who are famous who work hard to make a world a better place from discrimination like you and many others.  Your story help give me confidence to keep going on my life, to work hard on goals, and that there are people who can make a difference in your life.

 “A Reason To Believe Lesson From An Improbable Life” motivated me to do more research about you, your career, and your hard work as Governor of Massachusetts.  From a person with a strong interest in history I believe that you make a great difference for our country through being U.S. Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Rights Division where you work hard to help improve Civil Rights to help people who are different from discrimination and as Governor of Massachusetts where you continue advancing on Civil Rights, supporting legalizing same-sex marriage, protecting the environment through clean alternative energy, and help improve health care by expanding more programs to help drug addicts to recover.  Thanks for taking the time to read my letter and writing your memoir which help inspire me. I wish you well continuing serving your second term as Governor of Massachusetts. When you retire I want you to continue being an advocate to improve Civil Rights to help protect people who are different and continue to share your story about overcoming your struggle.

Sincerely,

Matthew B. Winick