Honorable William Cohen from Maine, USA

10/17/2017

U.S. Secretary William Cohen

c/o The Cohen Group

Suite 200

500 Eighth Street NW

Washington, D.C.  20004

Dear U.S. Secretary Cohen,

My name is Matt Winick from Ann Arbor, Michigan with a strong interest in learning history, social justice, and public policy. In these subjects, I like to learn the need to make Civil Rights stronger to reduce discrimination, protect the environment from pollution, and many others.  U.S. Secretary Cohen, the main reason I’m writing you a letter is to explain how I find your work as U.S. Senator from Maine and as 20^th U.S. Secretary of Defense to be very inspiring to me.

When you served as U.S. Senator from Maine from 1979-1997, I liked on how you were a moderate Republican on supporting Civil Rights and protecting the environment. On Civil Rights, I was very proud on how you join Democrats including moderate Republicans like Senator Ted Kennedy, Senator Tom Harkin, Senator Bob Graham, Senator Bob Dole, Senator Richard Lugar, and Senator Nancy Kassabuam Baker to support The American with Disabilities’ Act of 1990 to help protect people with disabilities from being discriminated in education including public places.  Also on Civil Rights I really like on how you were an advocate for people with disabilities’ rights, support funds to help women including minorities businesses compete in the economy, vote in favor of the Civil Rights Act of 1991 to expand laws to help protect women, minorities, and people with disabilities from being discriminated in employment services, and express the need to reduce racial profiling in law enforcement services to help protect minorities.  Your approach to protect the environment by voting in favor of the Clean Air Act of 1990 to help reduce air pollution by requiring industries to burn clean fuel along with expand research for biofuel for vehicles including industries to use, support renewable energy sources to reduce addiction to oil with gas while reduce CO2 emissions, and work with Democrats including some moderate Republicans to pass legislation to help protect water resources along with public lands including national parks from being polluted.   Also when you served in the U.S. Senate I really liked on how you were an advocate for immigration reform to help protect immigrants including refugees form oppressive countries and push for The Montgomery G.I. Bill Act to help people who serve in the military get into a job training program.  In President Bill Clinton’s presidency I liked on how you accepted to serve as U.S. Secretary of Defense to help our country. In your role as 20^th U.S. Secretary of Defense I liked on how you worked with President Bill Clinton and the U.S. Congress to support the 1998 Defense budget which focused on recruiting with training programs to help people who join the military to develop skills, expand programs to help troops get medical care,  and push for more research into military technology to improve troops’s equipment help protect troops when they get into battle. Another thing that I liked when you served as U.S. Secretary of Defense was on how you were a strong advocate for the need to end discrimination policies for women, minorities, and people with disabilities who are in military jobs, work to expand NATO organization to include Poland, Hungary, and Czech Republic in order to work together with the U.S. on finding ways to reduce tensions with other counties, and assist President Bill Clinton with Russian President Yeltsin on the STARTIII to reduce nuclear weapons for both nations. When you left public service, I truly appreciate on how you are a strong advocate for Civil Rights, express the need for campaign finance reform to reduce corruption in elections, support human rights including immigration reform, and express the need to reduce tension between countries

U.S. Secretary Cohen, I have autism with a learning disability. Having a disability is hard for me because I have trouble comprehending on learning different advance subjects, sometimes I struggle to communicate my thoughts, and get teased. Your commitment to be a strong supporter of Civil Rights including people with disabilities’ rights really inspires me to work hard on my disability. The ADA of 1990 that you supported helped benefited me getting some education and to be protected from being discriminated.   In education, the ADA of 1990 helped give me accommodations like extra time on exams, have a tutor or a T.A. help me work on different assignments, use a recorder or education software to help assist on improving my comprehension, and special education resources helping me set up accommodations in elementary school through my community college.  In May 2014, I was able to get an associates degree at Washtenaw Community College in Ann Arbor, Michigan.my main focus in Associates Degree is history, government, some business, some science, and criminal justice.. Your role in public service gives me motivation to continue to learn history, public policy, and social justice.  My future goal is to someday work in these areas to help emphasize the need to make Civil Rights stronger  in order to reduce discrimination, have environmental protection, and many others.

I strongly believe that you made a great difference when you served in public service. I’m very proud on how you worked hard as a moderate Republican to support Civil Rights, push for environmental protection, and to work with another party on different issues.  Even though I still struggle with autism your support for The ADA of 1990  really helped changed my life to get some education and to be protected from being discriminated.  You have inspired me to continue to work hard on my disability and be motivated to continue to learn different subjects. I have included a story of my life about working hard on my disability called the Kid With No Words where I dedicate you and many influential people who inspire me. I hope you enjoy my story and my letter and also I’m providing you a picture of me for you to keep to remind you on how much you inspire me.  Thanks for taking the time to read my letter, making a great impact in public service, and inspiring me. I wish you the best to continue to advocate for common sense ideas.

Sincerely,

Matthew B. Winick

Sent me a picture of himself 

Her sent me his book Collision

Honorable Cohen added a nice message to me in his book called Collision

Honorable Norman Dicks from Washington

12/05/2017

Honorable Norman Dicks

Senior Policy Advisor

c/o Van Ness Feldman

1050 Thomas Jefferson Street, NW

Washington, DC  20007

Dear Honorable Dicks,

My name is Matt Winick from Ann Arbor, Michigan with a strong interest in learning history, social justice, and public policy. In these subjects, I like to learn the need to make Civil Rights stronger to reduce discrimination, protect the environment from pollution, and many others. Honorable Dicks, the main reason I’m writing you a letter is to explain how I find your work as member of the U.S. House of Representative from Washington’s 6^th district to be very inspiring to me.

When you served in U.S. House of Representative from Washington’s 6^th district from 1977-2012, I liked on how you were a strong supporter of Civil Rights by advocating for people with disabilities’ rights, supporting Civil Rights legislation to help protect minorities including women from being discriminated, and expressing the need for women to have equal pay.  Also on Civil Rights, I truly appreciated how you worked with Democrats including moderate Republicans to support The Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 to help protect people with disabilities from being discriminated in education including public places, re-introduced the Equal Rights amendment to help protect women from being discriminated based on gender even thought it did not get a vote in congress, and provide funds to help women including minorities businesses to help compete in the economy.   Voting in favor of the American Recovery Act of 2009, a stimulus package to help create job-training programs to help train youth including workers to develop job-skills to help prepare for the work force and expressing the need to raise the minimum wage to help minimum wage workers afford to live is common sense to improve the economy.  On the environment, I really liked on how you strongly supported funds for renewable energy to help reduce addiction on oil with gas and pushed for funds to help keep public lands including water resources to make them safe for people to use.   Another thing that I liked about when you served in U.S. Congress was how you supported more immigration visas to help immigrants come to get an education or have a job, expressed the need for immigration reform to help protect immigrants including refugees from oppressive countries,  and advocated for campaign finance reform to reduce dark money from lobbying groups or corporations in campaigns to reduce corruption.

Honorable Dicks, I have autism with a learning disability. Having a disability is hard for me because I have trouble comprehending on learning different advance subjects, sometimes I struggle to communicate my thoughts, and get teased. Your commitment to be a strong supporter of Civil Rights including people with a disabilities’ rights really inspires me to work hard on my disability. The ADA of 1990 that you supported helped benefited me to get some education and to be protected from being discriminated in public places. In education the ADA of 1990 helped me get some accommodations in elementary school through high school including my community college like extra time on exams, have a T.A. or a tutor help me with assignments, use educational software including a recorder to help assist on comprehension along with improve on note-taking, and have special education resources help assist me on accommodations.   In May 2014, I was able to get an associates degree in Liberal Arts at Washtenaw Community College. My main focus in my Liberal Arts degree is history, government, some business, some science, and criminal justice.  The American Recovery Act of 2009 helped me get into a job-training program called the B. Side of the Arts at the EMU College of Business in Michigan. In the program, they had lectures about how business works and provided classes to help train other people including me to develop work-skills.  As a result of the American Recovery Act it helped prepare me for the workforce and it paid really well. Your role in Congress gives me motivation to continue to learn different subjects especially history.

I strongly believe that you made a great difference when you served in Congress. I’m very proud on how you worked hard to make Civil Rights stronger, protect the environment, and many others. Your work in Congress on supporting the ADA of 1990 helped benefit me to get help on my disability and the American Recovery Act helped me developed work skills. You have inspired me to work hard on my disability and to continue to learn different subjects. Thanks for taking the time to read my letter, making a great difference, and inspiring me.

Sincerely,

Matt Winick

Mr. John Leguizamo actor/comedian

11/27/2017

Mr. John Leguizamo

Latin History for Morons (Until Feb 25 2018)

c/o Studio 54

254 W 54^th Street

New York, NY  10019

Dear Mr. Leguizamo,

My name is Matt Winick and I’m a fan of your acting. My favorite movie that you played in was Ice Age.  Ice Age was a great movie because I enjoyed the plot of it about Manny, a wooly mammoth who meets Sid, a ground sloth and they find a human baby and go out to a journey to return a baby to the humans to protect it from predators during the ice age era.  In the movie I really liked about how Manny, Sid, and Diego would work together to continue on the journey to help protect the baby and work hard on their friendship when there is a conflict or how each of them don’t like some of their personality.  Mr. Leguizamo, I thought you did an excellent job voicing as Sid because I liked on how you made Sid have great traits like  caring about his friends when times are hard,  working hard to be friendly when some animals ignore him,  and have a sense of humor.  Besides your acting, I really like your activism on expressing support for Civil Rights including people with disabilities’ rights, advocating for the need for immigration reform to help protect immigrants including refugees from being oppressed, and the need to fund the arts including diversity programs to make society  a better place.

Mr. Leguizamo, I have autism with a learning disability. Having a disability is hard for me because I have trouble comprehending on learning different advance subjects, sometimes I struggle to communicate my thoughts, and get teased.  Another thing that I struggle with a disability is when I lose friends due to some of their other friends or peers tease me or get judgmental about me being different, sometimes I lose motivation of myself, and feel like I lose hope.  Your advocacy for Civil Rights including people with disabilities’ rights really inspires me to work hard on my disability.  Ice Age has a great message about the need for friendships, learn how to work together when there is a conflict, and many others.  You and the main cast of Ice Age gives me motivation to understand and learn the importance for friendships.

I strongly believe that you really did a great job making Ice Age a great comedy movie with a great message.   I’m very proud on how you are working hard to continue your activism to help improve society.  You have inspired me to work hard on my disability, learn the importance of friendships, and to be a fan of your acting.  I was wondering if you could please personalize a nice message on a picture of you and if you could also please take the time to give me some advice about friendships.  Here is a picture of me as a gift to you for inspiring me and $5 for you to use to help your activism.  Thanks for taking the time to read my letter, doing a great job in acting including your activism, and inspiring me.  I wish you well on your Broadway show.

Sincerely,

Matt Winick

Mr. John Leguizamo took the time to answer some of my questions