Former U.S. Senator Mark Begich of Alaska

9/10/2015

U.S. Senator Mark Begich

President and CEO of Northern Compass Group LLC

c/o Northern Compass Group LLC

310 K Street, Suite 401

Anchorage, AK  99501
USA

Dear U.S. Senator Begich

My name is Matthew Winick from Ann Arbor, Michigan with a strong interest in studying history and government.  The main reason I have a strong interest in studying these main subjects to learn the need to advance on Civil Rights to help protect people who are different from being discriminated, the need for health care reform to help people with pre-existing conditions or who can’t afford insurance get the care they need, protect the environment from pollution by supporting alternative energy with renewable energy, and many others. Senator Begich, I find your work as Mayor of Anchorage and as a U.S. Senator of Alaska to be very inspiring to me and how your work in the U.S. Senate helped benefit me.

When you were Mayor of Anchorage, Alaska I liked on how you worked with Native, Native American, and Asian American groups on assisting their communities by providing funds to help them do well in the economy with getting the services they need. Also to h=elp youth, I liked on how you were a strong supporter of youth programs to help them get assistance on learning different subjects, having job training programs to help the youth to improve on their job skills, and program called Making A Difference to help non-violent juvenile offenders including drug users get the treatment they need along with having them do community services instead of strict sentencing.  In the U.S. Senate, I liked on how you worked on supporting strengthening Civil Rights to help protect people who are different from being discriminated by repealing Don’t Ask Don’t Tell to help protect people with different sexual orientation who serve in the military from being discriminated based on their orientation, supporting Matthew Shepard and James Byrd Act Hate Crime Prevention Act to expand hate-crime laws with more protection for gender, race, sexual orientation, and people with disabilities from being targeted by a hate crime,  voting for Lily Ledbetter Fair Pay Act of 2009 to help improve filing for equal pay discrimination lawsuit when being discriminated in pay based on gender, and being an advocate to help Natives, Native Americans, and Pacific Asian American groups get assistance from the federal government to help improve their communities.  I liked on how you worked with moderate Republicans Senators like Olympia Snowe, Richard Lugar, Lisa Murkowski, and George Voinovich and also work with moderate Democrats like Kay Hagan and Mark Udall on improving Civil Rights to help reduce discrimination while helping women including minorities and people with disabilities communities get the care they need.  On the economy, I was very proud of your commitment to work hard with both political parties including President Obama by supporting the American Recovery Act, a stimulus bill to help giving funding to states to create jobs along with implementing job training program to help people improve on their work skills voting in favor of Fraud Enforcement and Recovery Act, and Dodd-Frank Bill to put regulations on Wall Street including financial institutions from committing fraud including abuse with enhancing law enforcement agencies with strengthening federal fraud laws  to combat  against different forms of frauds.  Also in the Senate, I liked on how you broke with both parties on Civil Liberties by voting against extending the Patriot Act which does illegal searches without a warrant, opposing free trade deals to help protect our country from losing jobs overseas with protecting worker’s rights, supporting renewable energy like wind, solar, biofuel, and energy efficient products while supporting conservation to help protect national parks from being polluted, and expressing the need for campaign finance reform to reduce corruption in elections including public officials.  To improve health care, I really liked on how you supported the ACA to help people with pre-existing conditions or who can’t afford health insurance get the care they need and supporting Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act to discourage minors from buying tobacco products with making tobacco products including cigarettes have warning labels to help improve public safety.

Senator Begich, I have Autism with a learning disability and your work on making Civil Rights stronger and being an advocate for people with disabilities helped expand better protections on me from being discriminated in education, job, and public places.  Also your work on helping Native Americans, Asian Americans, and other communities really inspired me to be motivated to be interested in learning Asian American including Asian history to help me be motivated as an Asian American to be proud of my heritage. The American Recovery Act helped me get into a job-training program called the B. Side of Arts in Michigan where I learned about business with how they work and worked on improving my job skills through classes including training and getting paid.  The American Recovery Act helped improve my job skill and it made me even more confident to work full time The ACA, health care reform helped me stay on my parent’s health insurance until I turn 26 due to being a 24 year old. Without the ACA, I would have trouble affording health insurance on my own without my parent’s assistance.

Even though you lost re-election for your Senate seat, I was very proud of your hard work on making a great difference on many different issues and how your work helped benefit me. Also I am proud of you for being bipartisan when there was gridlock, supporting Civil Rights to reduce discrimination, create job training programs to improve the economy, voting in favor of health care reform to help people get the care they need, work on improving minorities communities with getting funding to assist them especially Asian American including Native American, and being a true advocate for reform.  Senator Begich, I strongly believe that you made great history for our country.  Thanks for taking the time to read my letter, working hard making a great difference on different issues when both parties were not engaged, and making a great difference for me through your work. I wish you well for the future and to do well at Northern Compass Group LLC where you can continue making a difference to make a better society and a great future on many issues.

Sincerely,

Matthew B. Winick