Former U.S. Senator Mark Udall of Colorado

10/22/2015

Senator Mark E. Udall

c/o Grand Canyon Trust

2601 N. Fort Valley Road

Flagstaff, AZ  86001
USA

Dear Senator Udall,

My name is Matthew Winick from Ann Arbor, MI with a strong interest in studying history. The main reason I have a strong in studying history is to learn the need to advance on Civil Rights to reduce discrimination, protect the environment from pollution, have healthcare reform to help people who can’t afford insurance or have a pre-existing condition get the care they need, and have checks and balances in judicial system to help protect people’s civil liberties from being violated while finding ways to reduce crime.  Senator Udall, I find your work as a U.S. Senator of Colorado on different issues really inspiring to me and your work helped made a great difference for me.

When you served in the U.S. Senate in 2009-2015, I liked on how you were committed to work hard on making Civil Rights stronger by supporting repealing DADT policy to help protect people who served in the military from being discriminated based on their sexual preferences, working with moderate Republicans on supporting Lily Ledbetter Fair Pay Act to help allow filing for equal pay discrimination lawsuit when being discriminated in pay based on gender, supporting Matthew Shepard and James Byrd Hate Crime Prevention Act to expand on protection for minorities, gender, people with disabilities, and people with sexual orientation from a hate crime. Another thing is on Civil Rights, I really liked on how you supported with voted for the need for U.S. to ratify the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Person with Disabilities treaty to help expand better protection for people with disabilities from being discriminated even though it didn’t get passed in the Senate due to extreme political parties.  In the U.S. Senate, I really liked on how you supported the need to protect national parks from being damaged, work with Republicans on supporting finding ways to reduce pine beetle from damaging the environment to help preserve natural resources, and pushing for renewable energy like wind, solar, biofuel, and energy efficient products to reduce our addiction to oil with gas including reducing pollution.  When you served on the Senate Intelligence Committee, I was very proud on your hard work to advocate for the need to improve better protection for American’s right to privacy by voting against the Patriot Act, advocating for the need to reduce bulk collection of data on U.S. Citizens to help protect U.S. citizens from losing their civil liberties, and push for the need to have a warrant in order to surveillance including better protection of the 5^th amendment including the 6^th amendment of the Constitutions from being weaken to help protect Americans from losing their right for a reasonable search warrant or having the right to have a lawyer with having a trial including right to hear what evidence that they have on you.  On this issue I liked on how you worked on being bipartisanship with liberals, moderates, and conservatives on addressing the need for reform to help protect American’s civil liberties even though Congress was in gridlock or played politics.  To make the economy stronger and make healthcare a priority, I was very proud on how you supported the American Recovery Act, a stimulus bill to fund job training programs to help workers including youth improve on the job-skills or learn them and voting for Affordable Care Act to help people with pre-existing conditions or who can’t afford health insurance get the care they need.

Your work on improving Civil Rights, advocating for people with disabilities’ rights, and supporting United Nations Convention on the Rights of Person with Disabilities treaty to be ratified even though it didn’t pass really help expand better protection for me from being discriminated based on a disability which is Autism with a learning disability in education including public places and helped me work hard on Autism to learn different things. Having Autism is hard because I have trouble comprehending on learning different subjects and sometimes I struggle with communication when speaking with people.  Your support for the American Recovery Act helped me get into a job-training program in Michigan called The B. Side of Arts where they had lectures about how business works and job training skills session to help me and other people learn different job skills and got paid. The American Recovery Act made a great difference for me and helped me expand on my work skills where it helped me get a full-time job.  The Affordable Care Act helped me stay on my parent’s health insurance until I turn 26 since I’m 24 years old. With out the ACA, I would have trouble with affording health insurance on my own. Also your advocacy for the need to protect American right to privacy and supporting better protection of the 5^th amendment with 6^th amendment from being violated really inspired me to be interest in learning about why civil liberties are important.  I agree with you on the need to make America safer by protecting Americans from losing right to privacy or their civil liberties like protection from unreasonable search warrants, have the right to a fair trial with having the right to a lawyer, and to hear any evidence against you when finding ways to reduce crime.

Even though you lost your re-election for your Senate seat, I am proud your hard work on making a great difference for our country and history on supporting expanding Civil Rights, being bipartisanship with Republicans on different issues, advocating for the need to protect American civil liberties from being violated, protecting the environment from pollution, and supporting health care reform. I’m proud to call you my favorite U.S. Senator because your work helped benefit me and it helped me do well in society with improving on my job skills, being protected from being discriminated based on a disability, and getting assistance on health care. Also you helped taught me to importance on the need for Civil Liberties to help protect American’s right to privacy and their Bill of Rights.  Thanks for giving me a chance to write a letter praising your work with how it helped benefited me, taking the time to read my letter, and making a great difference for society including me.  I wish you and your wife Ms. Maggie Foxx to do well in the future and to please continue on making society better with your work. Please feel free to share my letter with your family.

Sincerely,

Matthew B. Winick

Had to contact Grand Canyon Trust to get permission to send a letter to Senator Udall.