Secretary of State James Baker III

                                                                        3/28/2015

Secretary James Baker III

Baker Institute for Public Policy

Rice University MS-40

P.O. Box 1892

Houston, TX 77251-1892
USA

Dear Secretary Baker,

My name is Matthew Winick and I have a strong interest in learning American History, American government with elections, and world history.  These subjects are my favorite because I want to understand the need not to repeat the same mistakes in the past, to innovate new ideas, find ways to improve the world with learning about their culture, learn the need for human rights, peace, re-fixing relations with countries,  combating against global warming, the need to advance on Civil Right to end discrimination for people who are different and to recognize famous people along with minorities, gender, and people with different preferences’ work on making society better.  Secretary Baker, I find your role as Secretary of State and your commitment to find solutions to make world a better place.

I enjoyed researching your work as Secretary of State under George H.W. Bush administration. When you were Secretary of State I was really amazed by your work helping President Bush on the Middle East along with dealing with the post Cold War era.  During the Gulf War, I was amazed how you constructed 34 different nations to help the United States against Iraq to protect Kuwait from the invasion.  Another thing I liked about your work as Secretary of State is working with Nelson Mandela on ending Apartheid in South Africa. Secretary Baker, I learned more about your work under President Gerald Ford as Secretary of Commerce when I visited The Gerald Ford Museum in Grand Rapids. At the museum I found President Ford’s presidency and life very interesting with his achievements. When I saw you giving a speech at the Gerald Ford Museum explaining about his legacy I was very proud of your commitment to help President Ford during hard times. Your speech really motivated me to understand and learn about President Ford’s courage to make our country a better place.

Besides your work as Secretary of State I like how you work with other political parties to solve different issues like the need for human rights, promote fair democratic elections in different countries, finding ways to rebuilt trust between the U.S. with other countries, and expressing the need for a Middle East Peace. Also I liked when you teamed up with former President Jimmy Carter on expressing the need for federal elections reform to reduce waste and corruption. I enjoy reading your memoirs “Work Hard Study…. And Keep Out of Politics and Adventures” and “Lessons from an Unexpected Public Life.”  Your memoirs really help me understand what it is like working in presidential administration, understand Secretary of State’s role, having to deal with the Cold War.  Your work as Secretary of State really inspire me to be motivated to learn more about world history with culture with understanding the need to improve relations with other countries, a strong need for human rights, and the need to work together to reduce conflicts with combating against global warming. My main goal is to use history with learning about world culture is to find ways to make a world a better place with fair human rights, free elections, peace, better relations with countries, and to make history a better place for learning and make museums with memorials a better learning environment. My ideal career is to be a history teacher or a museum worker to help inspire people to work together, make learning fun and positive.  Thanks for taking the time to read my letter, making a difference, and listening about my interest in history with studying world culture.

Sincerely,

Matthew B. Winick 

Former Governor Mark Parkinson of Kansas

6/11/2015

Governor Mark Parkinson

President and CEO

c/o American Health Care Association

1201 L Street, NW

Washington, DC  20005
USA

Dear Governor Parkinson,

My name is Matthew Winick and I have a strong interest in studying history. The reason I have a strong interest in history is because I want to learn with understanding the core values that make a great difference for society including the world like the need to advance on Civil Rights to protect people who are different from discrimination, the need to have bipartisanship to find ways to work together, a strong need to protect the environment by having environmental protection with implementing renewable energy including alternative energy, find ways to improve public safety, a need for healthcare to help people get the health care they need when they can’t afford it, and many others. Governor Parkinson, for the future I plan on using history as a teaching tool to help emphasize the need for these main core values and to work on creating new ideas to help improve society.  The reason I’m writing you a letter is because I find your work as Governor of Kansas to be very inspiring to me with your great ideas and achievements, how I appreciate you being a moderate, share with you on about how I work hard to overcome Autism, and dedicating my 10 page story about working hard on my disability to you.

When you served as Governor of Kansas, I really liked on how you used your moderate approach to help your state. To improve public health I liked on how you worked with both Democrats and Republicans to have a bill called Clean Indoor Air Act where it bans public smoking in indoor places to help protect non-smokers from being affected by people who are second hand smokers and to help make the air better for people to breath. On the bill I was amazed on how you fought against the special interest groups that wanted to weaken the bill.  For the environment I liked on how you implemented renewable energy like wind, solar, biofuel, and energy efficient products as energy sources and use it to make a green economy to help reduce our addiction to oil with gas, reduce pollution, reduce high energy cost, and improve public health.  Another thing I was amazed was on how you worked hard with both parties to help create a jobs transportation bill to help improve infrastructure, fix roads, and find ways to make transportation efficient to even improve safety for people to use.  On Civil Rights, I liked your commitment to help support protecting minorities, women, people with different sexual orientation, and people with disabilities from being discriminated in education, benefits, jobs, and public places.  In December 2009, I enjoyed reading cjonline.com article “Meet C-J’s Kansan of The Year” because I liked about how you worked hard being a centrist, working across the aisle, and working hard to make tough decisions. 

Your work to help people with disabilities and as Governor or Kansas really helped me get inspired me to work hard on Autism with a learning disability. Governor Parkinson, having Autism is hard for me because I have trouble comprehending on learning new subjects at a persons regular rate, sometimes I have speech problems when communicating with other people, and I get teased by other people about my disability.  Even though having a disability is hard for me I have benefited from The Americans With Disabilities Act of 1990. The Americans With Disabilities Act helped me get an education in elementary school through high school including my community college.  The ADA helped give me accommodations to help me with education like extra time on exams, use technology with educational software to help assist me on comprehension, use a recorder to record lectures to help improve on note-taking, have a T.A. or a tutor work with me on learning with working on different assignments, and have special education program help set up accommodations with helping me pick which classes to take. In May 2014, I got my Associates Degree in Liberal Arts at Washtenaw Community College in Ann Arbor, Michigan. My main focus in Liberal Arts is history, government, criminal justice, some science, and some business. I plan on using these subjects to make a great difference.  Even though I still struggle with a disability I am very grateful for you being an advocate to improve Civil Rights, helping people with disabilities’ rights, and having commitment to make a difference through your role as Governor of Kansas and later as CEO of American Health Care Association because your work helps teaches me to work hard on Autism with having the courage to learn more subjects and explore how different core values make society better.

Governor Parkinson, I am proud to call you a true role model for me because I find your style as a moderate and having the commitment like improving Civil Rights to help end discrimination, protect the environment from pollution, and finding ways to improve public safety through your role as Governor of Kansas and currently as CEO of American Health Care Association where you advocate for the need to have healthcare, help advocate to help people with disabilities’ rights, and many others.  I really appreciate you being an advocate to assist people with disabilities to help them overcome their struggles because it really helps me work hard on overcoming my struggles with Autism and it even helps me become interested in learning different topics. Another thing is I decided to dedicate my story about working hard on my disability to you for your hard work and how you helped me understand different core values that we need and I hope you get a chance to read it.  Thanks for taking time to read my letter, inspiring me to work hard on overcoming my struggles, and making a great difference with your ideas.  I wish you well on continuing your role as CEO American Health Care Association where you can expand on different ideas.  Please feel free to share my letter and my story to your family.

Sincerely

Matthew B. Winick

Mr. Jim Davis Garfield

5/19/2015

Mr. Jim Davis

c/o Paws Inc.

5440 E. Co. Road. 450N

Albany, IN  47320
USA

Dear Mr. Davis,

My name is Matt Winick with a strong interest in history with comedy and I am a huge fan of your work on Garfield comic strips and watching cartoon shows like Garfield and Friends and The Garfield Show during my childhood years to present.  I really like the main characters of Garfield like Garfield, Jon, and Odie. The reason I like these characters is because I like how they have humor with very interesting personalities like Odie having a humor side with having an interest in learning things, Garfield being cynical with making side comments, and Jon who has an interest in different things.    My favorite comic books of Garfield are Garfield Brings Home The Bacon, Garfield Large and in Charge, Garfield Will Eat For Food, and many others.  Your comics and your characters makes me laugh a lot because I like how they have different traits with how they do silly stuff.  Also when I get the newspaper in the morning I like reading Garfield comic strips.

Besides your work on Garfield, I find your bio about your life to be very interesting. I was amazed to learn about how you were born on a farm, getting a degree in Art with Business, and later creating Garfield comics.  I remember reading about your struggles about making Garfield popular when Chicago Sun Times had canceled it, however I am proud of your hard work to make Garfield popular and funny. Also I wanted to say congrats on you winning The Best Humor Strip,  Elzie Sieger Award, and the Reuben Award.  Another thing I like about you is how you are active on finding ways to improve education, support helping children improve on literacy, and finding ways to improve the environment including conservation like reforestation, fixing up the prairie with wetlands from being damaged, and creating a wastewater plant to help improve sanitation.  Your activism is truly inspiring to me because I myself have trouble comprehending on literature with learning different subjects due to having Autism.  Having a disability is hard because I have trouble comprehending on learning different subjects and I get teased about having it.  Your work on Garfield helped me find humor and your activism to improve education really helps me get motivated to continuing learning different subjects.

Mr. Davis, I am proud of your work on Garfield, not giving up on your cartoon work, and being an activist to make society better.  I consider you one of my favorite cartoonists along with Seth McFarlane.  You are a true inspiration to me to be motivated to find humor with expand on learning different subjects.   I am sending you a drawing that I worked on where I drew a Mr. S, a snail walking on a ground with a sun, a Snazzy, a black orange cat sleeping on a rub, and a Buddha enjoying the peace with food and a nice hot drink that I learned from a drawing book as a gift for you for your hard work on making a great difference and a small donation to you to use to find ways to make society better.  Thanks for taking the time to read my letter and taking the time to look at my drawing. I wish you well for you in the future to continuing working on Garfield and being an activist where you can make a great difference for history, cartoon, and society.

Sincerely,

Matt Winick