City Council Member Esther Kiaʻāina of Honolulu City Council from the 3rd district

7/14/2023

City Council Member Esther Kiaʻāina

c/o Honolulu City Council

Honolulu City Hall

530 S. King Street, Room 202

Honolulu, HI  96813

Dear City Council Member Kiaʻāina,

My name is Matt Winick from Ann Arbor, Michigan and I have a strong interest in learning history including social justice. In these subjects, I like to learn the need for civil rights to be stronger to reduce discrimination, protect the environment from pollution, expand on social justice to improve communities, and many others. City Council Member Kiaʻāina, the main reason I’m writing you a letter is to explain how I find your work when you served as U.S. Assistant Secretary of the Interior for the Insular Areas and as current Member of the Honolulu City Council from the 3rd district to be very inspiring to me. 

When you served as U.S. Assistant Secretary of the Interior for the Insular Areas from 2014-2017, I liked on how you worked with President Obama to expand funds to the U.S. territories to help them get funds to repair the cities including their infrastructure and implement services to help low income areas get access to food including essential supplies. In your current role as Member of the Honolulu City Council from the 3rd district, , I truly appreciate on how you were a strong supporter of civil rights by advocating for people with disabilities, supporting funds for women including minorities businesses to help them compete in the economy, and working with members of the Honolulu City Council to expand on laws to combat against hate crimes. On the economy, , I liked on how you supported expansion of jobs training programs to help train workers including youth to develop or improve on work skills to help them prepare for the work force and heavily advocate for the need to raise the minimum wage to help assist minimum wage workers afford to live.  Supporting funds for renewable energy resources to make them safe for people to use, encouraging businesses including industries to use energy efficient products to help reduce high energy cost while reduce pollution, and working to provide funds to improve city services along with government services to help clean parks, water resources, and coastal areas to make them safe for people to use is common sense to protect the environment. On education, I like on how you support funds to improve special education to help students with disabilities get accommodations they need to learn, work on providing laptops to students who come from low income families or students with disabilities to help them do remote learning, and implement more tutoring services to assist students with getting help on their assignments from tutors. Another thing that I like about your work in Honolulu City Council is how you support funds to help repair historical sites including attractions to make learning a better tool while improve tourism, be a strong advocate for the need for affordable housing to help assist people who are low income or who can’t afford to live get shelter,  heavily support immigration reform to help protect dreamers, refugees, and immigrants from facing oppression, and work to expand better funds for health care for people with autism spectrum or people with disabilities to get help on getting access to health care. 

City Council Member Kiaʻāina, 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. Your role as former U.S. Assistant Secretary of the Interior for the Insular Areas and as current Member of the Honolulu City Council from the 3rd district helps give me motivation to continue to learn history including social justice. My future goal is to someday work in these areas to help emphasize the need to make civil rights stronger to reduce discrimination, protect the environment from pollution, improve social justice to make communities a better place, and many others.  

I strongly believe that you are making a great difference for society. I’m very proud on how you are working hard to support civil rights, protect the environment, find some solutions to help people during the pandemic, and many others.  You truly inspire me to work hard on my disability, learn more about your work, and learn different subjects, Thanks for taking the time to read my letter, working hard to make a great difference, and inspiring me. Please continue to make a great impact on society.

Sincerely,

Matt Winick