Mayor Michelle Distler of Shawnee, Kansas

7/21/2016

Mayor Michelle Distler

Office of the Mayor

c/o Shawnee City Hall

11110 Johnson Drive

Shawnee, KS  66203

Dear Mayor Distler,

My name is Matt Winick from Ann Arbor, Michigan with a strong interest in studying history and public policy. What I like to learn for 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, improve public safety to make it safe for people, and many others.  The main reason I’m writing you a letter is because I find your work as Mayor of Shawnee, Kansas to be very inspiring to me.

In 2015, I was amazed on how you became the first woman to become Mayor of Shawnee, Kansas. In your current role as Mayor, I like on how you are a strong supporter of protecting women, minorities, and people with disabilities from being discriminated in education, public places, and jobs. Also on Civil Rights I like on how you advocate for people with disabilities’ rights and working to help women along with minorities businesses to help them compete in the economy.  On the economy, I liked on how you along with city government work with different businesses to find ways to improve better customer services to improve relations between consumers, customers and businesses along with making products safer for people to use.  Also on improving government relations between the community and citizens, I like on how you work on community engagement called Third Thursdays where citizens along with different organizations can share their ideas or concerns to help improve their communities, improve technology services like city website Shawnee Connect mobile app to help citizens file reports on different problems where they can get an update, and make social media be efficient to communicate with people to help them understand city news or ask Q&A to the Mayor to understand issues.  Fixing roads to reduce potholes, adding traffic signals to roads to help reduce accidents, having city services partner with emergency services like police and fire department to find ways to improve their services to protect people, and creating Street improvement Task Force to work on finding ways to make transportation safety a priority or work on finding ways to make sidewalks with bike paths available to citizens are great ideas to improve public safety.  Another thing the I like about your work as current mayor is how you push for more volunteering programs to help youth along with adults help improve the community, fund special education to help students with disabilities get the educational accommodations they need to learn, provide funds for the arts with history to help teach people about diversity or how history play a role in society, and help push for funds to clean parks to reduce pollution along with making them safe for people to use.

Mayor Distler, 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 an advocate for people with disabilities’ rights, support people with disabilities’ rights, and support Civil Rights really inspires me to work hard on Autism. Your commitment to find ways to improve relations between government and the citizens really motivates me to continue on learning different ideas about the need to make government work with the people and to continue my interest to learn more about how government works.  Also your work as current Mayor motivates me to continue my interest in learning history. My future goal is to someday teach history to help emphasize the need to make Civil Rights stronger, express the need to make government work with the people to find solutions to reduce problems, and many others.   My letter is also a gift to you for inspiring me and to help you continue being motivated to continue making community with society a better place.

Mayor Distler, I am proud on how you are working hard to make a great difference for society and finding ways to make government be more efficient for people.  You have inspired me to continue to work hard on my disability, understand the need for government to work with the people to solve different issues, and to continue my motivation to continue to learn history.  Thanks for taking the time to read my letter, making a great difference with your ideas, and inspiring me.  I wish you well for the future and to continue you role as Mayor of Shawnee, Kansas.

Sincerely,

Matt Winick