Mayor Betsy Hodges of Minneapolis, Minnesota

3/02/2017

Mayor Betsy Hodges

c/o Office of The Mayor

City of Minneapolis

350 S. 5^th Street, Room 331

Minneapolis, MN  55415

Dear Mayor Hodges,

My name is Matt Winick from Ann Arbor, Michigan with a strong interest in learning history with public policy. In these subjects, I like to learn the need for Civil Rights to be stronger to reduce discrimination, protect the environment, and many others.  Mayor Hodges, the main reason I’m writing you a letter is to explain how I find your role as 47^th Mayor of Minneapolis, Minnesota to be very inspiring to me and to recognize you for Women’s history month.

In your current role as 47^th Mayor of Minneapolis, Minnesota on Civil Rights, I’m very proud on how you are an advocate for people with disabilities’ rights, support funding women including minorities businesses to help them compete in the economy, express the need for equal pay for women to help protect them from being discriminated in pay based on gender, and push for LQBT rights. On the economy, your approach on improving it by expanding on job-training programs to help train youth including workers to develop job-skills to help prepare them for the workforce, implementing “Business Made Simple Initiative” to reduce high late fees on small businesses to help them be part of the community along with find ways to improve customer services, work with different businesses to help hire women, minorities, people with disabilities, and immigrants to help improve the economy while create jobs is common sense.  Pushing for funds to help clean up parks including water resources to make them safe for people to use, supporting renewable energy sources to reduce addiction to oil with gas, and encouraging businesses including the city to use green technology to reduce pollution while creating jobs are great ways to protect the environment.  I like your work on police reform to improve the law enforcement relations with the community like put body cameras on very police officers, expand police officer training to follow police procedures including understand how to deal with a crisis intervention, push for women including minorities in the law enforcement to make it diverse along with help law enforcement connect with minorities communities, and implement community policing to help improve relations between police officers with communities.  Also I like your commitment on social justice like expressing the need for affordable housing to help assist low-income people get the housing they need, expanding on homeless shelter to help homeless people get the care they need, implementing treatment programs to help drug-users get the care they need so they won’t get addicted, and pushing for community services to help rehabilitate non-violent offenders including non-violent juveniles so they won’t re-offend.  Your work on improving education reform like fund special education to help students with disabilities get education resources they need to help them, provide after school programs to help youth get help on their assignments, expand on literacy programs to help students including children who are low-income develop reading skill with comprehension, and push for volunteer programs to help them get engage in the community is a great way to make education a better place while making learning environment efficient.   Another thing that I like about your role as Mayor is how you expand on funds for museums including different attractions in Minneapolis to make learning a better place while improve tourism, push for bike-paths to help protect pedestrians from getting hit by vehicles, and working with law enforcements including different organizations to combat against human trafficking.

Mayor Hodges, 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 a strong supporter of Civil Rights and advocate for people with disabilities’ rights really inspires me to work hard on my disability.  Your work on improving social justice drives me to learn the importance of social justice by watching documentaries or reading short articles.  Your role as current mayor motivates me to continue my interest in learning history with public policy. My letter is a gift to you for inspiring and for Women History Month to recognize women who work hard to make a great difference.

I believe that you are making a great difference in your role as Mayor. Also I’m proud on how you are working hard to make social justice a better place.  Mayor Hodges, you have inspired me to work hard on my disability, understand the importance of social justice, and continue my interest in learning history. Thanks for taking the time to read my letter,  working hard to make society a better place, and inspiring me.  I wish you well to continue to make  a great impact for society.

Sincerely,

Matt Winick