Honorable Tom Ridge from Pennsylvania

              9/16/2018

Honorable Thomas Ridge       

c/o Ridge Global LLC

1140 Connecticut Avenue, NW Suite 510

Washington, DC  20036

Dear Honorable Ridge,

My name is Matt Winick from Ann Arbor, Michigan with a strong interest in learning history and social justice. 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 Ridge, the main reason I’m writing you a letter is to explain how I find your work as 43^rd Governor of Pennsylvania and as a moderate Republican to be very inspiring to me.

When you served as 43^rd Governor of Pennsylvania from 1995-2001, I’m very proud on how you were a strong supporter of Civil Rights by advocating for people with disabilities’ rights,   pushing for tough laws to combat against hate-crime to help protect minorities including people who are different, and trying to push for the Equal Rights Amendment to help protect women from being discriminated based on gender even though it didn’t get passed in the state legislature.  On the economy, I liked on how you expanded job training programs to help youth including workers to develop work-skills to help prepare for the workforce.  Funding special education to help students with disabilities get the educational resources they need to help accommodate and pushing for after school programs to provide youth with assistance on their assignments from tutors is common sense to improve education reform.   To protect the environment, I liked on how you supported funds for renewable energy resources to help reduce addiction to oil with gas,  pushed for more funds to improve Superfund cleanups to help clean up pollution in water resources along with parks to make them safe for people to use.  Another thing that I liked about your work as Governor of Pennsylvania is how you supported women’s right to choose, advocated for immigration reform to help protect immigrants including refugees from being oppressed, and created a Rainy Day fund balance to have billions of money to be used to help people when they struggle in a recession.   When you served as 1^st U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security from 2003-2005, I liked on how you tried your best to reform the agency to help protect immigrants from being racial profiled, advocate for more funds to help train law enforcements to handle different situations, and many others.  Also in your role as a moderate Republican I was very proud on how you had the courage to speak out against Donald Trump’s bigotry views, support Civil Rights including people with disabilities’ rights, advocate for the need for immigration reform to help protect immigrants including refugees from oppression, and many others.

Honorable Ridge, 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.  Also your role as Governor of Pennsylvania, as U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security, and as a moderate Republican gives me motivation to continue to learn history with social justice.  My future goal is to someday work in these areas to help emphasize the need for Civil Rights to be stronger to reduce discrimination, protect the environment from pollution, the need for immigration reform to help protect immigrants including refugees from being oppressed, 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 strongly supported Civil Rights, pushed to protect the environment, supported immigration reform, and many others in your role as a moderate Republican.  You have truly inspired me to work hard on my disability and continue to learn history with social justice.  Thanks for taking the time to read my letter, working hard to make a great impact on society when politics was difficult, and inspiring me. Please continue to advocate for common sense ideas when both political parties ignore them or when people in politics use bigotry or hate against people who are different.

Sincerely,

Matt Winick

Honorable Ridge handwritten me a message to me 

Honorable Ridge sent me his book "The Test of Our Times: America Under Siege And How We Can Be Safe Again"  about his life in politics and ideas to improve Homeland Security.