Mr. Gene Luen Yang

7/6/2015

Mr. Gene Luen Yang

P.O. Box 32321

San Jose, CA  95152
USA

Dear Mr. Gene Luen Yang,

My name is Matt Winick, an Asian American with a strong interest in reading comic books and learning history. Comic books are my favorite because I really like reading different stories, seeing different graphics, and it is easy for me to comprehend on understanding the issue. Comic books also help me find humor, understand the message of symbolism, and helps inspire me to work hard in life with finding a balance of having fun.  The main reason I have a strong interest in history because I like to learn the need for diversity with culture to help people understand on how they play a big role in society, a strong need to advance on Civil Rights to help protect people who are different from discrimination, and many others. Mr. Yang, I plan on the future to use history as a goal to teach people about the need to improve society and have the courage to explore on how different parts make history. Mr. yang, your work as a comic book writer and explaining what it is like as an Asian American or an Asian going through struggles really inspires me.

Mr. Yang, I enjoyed reading about your life as being a son of Chinese immigrants born in the U.S., and later being interested in a career in comics.   Also I enjoyed learning on how you worked hard at overcoming your struggles like fitting in with other Asians with society and going from different jobs until you found your passion.  My favorite comic books that you worked on are Superman #41, Prime Baby, The Shadow Hero, Boxer & Saint, and American Born Chinese.  The reason I like these comic books is because I like enjoy learning about my favorite superhero Superman’s origins, having humor about math including other things, and learning more about Asian culture with history through comic books.  Mr. Yang, I have Autism with a learning disability and having a disability is hard for me because I have trouble comprehending on learning different subjects, have trouble with communication when speaking to other people, and I get teased about having it.  Another thing I face with having a disability and being an Asian American is being teased or rejected by some Asians including Asian Americans because they feel like I don’t fit well with them and they believe that I’m not smart or perfect like them or that I don’t belong in their race. When they do it hurts my feelings and makes me lose confidence about myself being an Asian American or being part of an Asian culture. However, your work on Asian culture, explaining what it is like for an Asian or Asian American working on overcoming struggles, and history really helped me have the confidence to work hard to overcome different struggles, to feel proud to be an Asian American, and have the courage to be interested in studying Asian including Asian American history and learn more about the culture.  In my history class, I struggled to comprehend on learning about the Boxer Rebellion because my textbook was difficult with vocabulary with mixed opinions instead of facts, but your book Boxer & Saint helped me understand what Boxer Rebellion was like, how the Chinese felt about the Europeans, and the graphics helped give me an image of what it was like.  I used your book as an assistance resource to help me studying more about the event. “American Born Chinese” helped me be inspired to work on overcoming my struggle and helped me feel confident about being an Asian American because it did a great job explaining what it is like going through struggles they face.  As a result, your work got me even motivated to have a passion for history and exploring Asian culture including history and it even helped me get interested in visiting Asian art museums, Asian American museum, try learning how to do calligraphy, have the courage to eat different Asian food, and visiting Chinatown, Koreatown, and many other Asian cities in the U.S.

Mr. Yang, I am proud to call you a true role model for me because your story about being an Asian American working to overcome your struggle by finding ways to find into society including working at many different jobs until you found a great passion helped get me inspired to work hard at Autism and being more motivated about being an Asian American. Your life with work helped me make a great difference for me to motivated to learn history, find ways to enjoy humor in comic books, have the courage to be proud of being an Asian American with having the courage to be interested in Asian including Asian American culture.  Your comic books on Asian culture with history helped me comprehend on understanding more about the background and helped me imagine what it is like during the time period or how they felt.  Also I strongly believe that you really made a great difference for me and other Asian Americans.  I wrote a story about my struggles with disability and my goals to make history a better place and I dedicate my story to you for making a great positive impact on me to be interested in history, being more confident about being an Asian American, and becoming more motivated to study history with culture. I hope you get a chance to read it. Thanks for taking the time to read my letter, inspiring me, and giving me a chance to send my letter with story to you. Mr. Yang, I want to wish you well for the future with your work as a comic book writer and please continue on inspiring many Asian including Asian Americans like me to continue working to overcome struggles. I am proud to call you one of my favorite comic book writer.

Sincerely,

Matt Winick

Former U.S. Senator Mark Begich of Alaska

9/10/2015

U.S. Senator Mark Begich

President and CEO of Northern Compass Group LLC

c/o Northern Compass Group LLC

310 K Street, Suite 401

Anchorage, AK  99501
USA

Dear U.S. Senator Begich

My name is Matthew Winick from Ann Arbor, Michigan with a strong interest in studying history and government.  The main reason I have a strong interest in studying these main subjects to learn the need to advance on Civil Rights to help protect people who are different from being discriminated, the need for health care reform to help people with pre-existing conditions or who can’t afford insurance get the care they need, protect the environment from pollution by supporting alternative energy with renewable energy, and many others. Senator Begich, I find your work as Mayor of Anchorage and as a U.S. Senator of Alaska to be very inspiring to me and how your work in the U.S. Senate helped benefit me.

When you were Mayor of Anchorage, Alaska I liked on how you worked with Native, Native American, and Asian American groups on assisting their communities by providing funds to help them do well in the economy with getting the services they need. Also to h=elp youth, I liked on how you were a strong supporter of youth programs to help them get assistance on learning different subjects, having job training programs to help the youth to improve on their job skills, and program called Making A Difference to help non-violent juvenile offenders including drug users get the treatment they need along with having them do community services instead of strict sentencing.  In the U.S. Senate, I liked on how you worked on supporting strengthening Civil Rights to help protect people who are different from being discriminated by repealing Don’t Ask Don’t Tell to help protect people with different sexual orientation who serve in the military from being discriminated based on their orientation, supporting Matthew Shepard and James Byrd Act Hate Crime Prevention Act to expand hate-crime laws with more protection for gender, race, sexual orientation, and people with disabilities from being targeted by a hate crime,  voting for Lily Ledbetter Fair Pay Act of 2009 to help improve filing for equal pay discrimination lawsuit when being discriminated in pay based on gender, and being an advocate to help Natives, Native Americans, and Pacific Asian American groups get assistance from the federal government to help improve their communities.  I liked on how you worked with moderate Republicans Senators like Olympia Snowe, Richard Lugar, Lisa Murkowski, and George Voinovich and also work with moderate Democrats like Kay Hagan and Mark Udall on improving Civil Rights to help reduce discrimination while helping women including minorities and people with disabilities communities get the care they need.  On the economy, I was very proud of your commitment to work hard with both political parties including President Obama by supporting the American Recovery Act, a stimulus bill to help giving funding to states to create jobs along with implementing job training program to help people improve on their work skills voting in favor of Fraud Enforcement and Recovery Act, and Dodd-Frank Bill to put regulations on Wall Street including financial institutions from committing fraud including abuse with enhancing law enforcement agencies with strengthening federal fraud laws  to combat  against different forms of frauds.  Also in the Senate, I liked on how you broke with both parties on Civil Liberties by voting against extending the Patriot Act which does illegal searches without a warrant, opposing free trade deals to help protect our country from losing jobs overseas with protecting worker’s rights, supporting renewable energy like wind, solar, biofuel, and energy efficient products while supporting conservation to help protect national parks from being polluted, and expressing the need for campaign finance reform to reduce corruption in elections including public officials.  To improve health care, I really liked on how you supported the ACA to help people with pre-existing conditions or who can’t afford health insurance get the care they need and supporting Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act to discourage minors from buying tobacco products with making tobacco products including cigarettes have warning labels to help improve public safety.

Senator Begich, I have Autism with a learning disability and your work on making Civil Rights stronger and being an advocate for people with disabilities helped expand better protections on me from being discriminated in education, job, and public places.  Also your work on helping Native Americans, Asian Americans, and other communities really inspired me to be motivated to be interested in learning Asian American including Asian history to help me be motivated as an Asian American to be proud of my heritage. The American Recovery Act helped me get into a job-training program called the B. Side of Arts in Michigan where I learned about business with how they work and worked on improving my job skills through classes including training and getting paid.  The American Recovery Act helped improve my job skill and it made me even more confident to work full time The ACA, health care reform helped me stay on my parent’s health insurance until I turn 26 due to being a 24 year old. Without the ACA, I would have trouble affording health insurance on my own without my parent’s assistance.

Even though you lost re-election for your Senate seat, I was very proud of your hard work on making a great difference on many different issues and how your work helped benefit me. Also I am proud of you for being bipartisan when there was gridlock, supporting Civil Rights to reduce discrimination, create job training programs to improve the economy, voting in favor of health care reform to help people get the care they need, work on improving minorities communities with getting funding to assist them especially Asian American including Native American, and being a true advocate for reform.  Senator Begich, I strongly believe that you made great history for our country.  Thanks for taking the time to read my letter, working hard making a great difference on different issues when both parties were not engaged, and making a great difference for me through your work. I wish you well for the future and to do well at Northern Compass Group LLC where you can continue making a difference to make a better society and a great future on many issues.

Sincerely,

Matthew B. Winick

Former Governor Mike Sullivan of Wyoming

9/1/2015

Governor Michael J. Sullivan

c/o LEWIS ROCA ROTHGERBER LLP

123 West First Street, Suite 200

Casper, Wyoming  82601
USA

Dear Governor Sullivan,

My name is Matthew Winick from Ann Arbor, Michigan and my main interest is studying history. History is one of my favorite subjects because I like to learn about the need to make Civil Rights stronger to reduce discrimination in order to protect people who are different from discrimination, have government reform to reduce corruption, protect the environment from pollution by supporting environmental protection along with renewable alternative energy, finding ways to reduce crime to improve public safety, and many others.  Governor Sullivan, I find your work as Governor of Wyoming and later as an Ambassador of Ireland to be very inspiring to me.

When you served as 29^th Governor of Wyoming, I liked on how you supported Civil Rights to help protect minorities, women, and people with disabilities from being discriminated with expressing the need for Equal Rights amendment to help reduce discrimination based on gender. Another thing I liked to make Civil rights stronger was your support with implementing Executive Order 1993-4 that was to make your state, public places, government administration, and jobs to be a safe environment from sexual discrimination, intimidation, harassment, and sexual harassment. Also in the executive order I liked on how you added for the need for Wyoming employees to go through training to learn more about how to reduce discrimination with harassment.  On the environment, I liked on how used environmental clean ups to help clean rivers, parks, national parks, and Native American reservations from toxic chemicals spills and to help conserve these areas from being damaged. I liked on how you worked with the EPA on cleaning up pollution which contaminated drinking water wells in Brookhurst to help protect citizens  and using the national guard to help provide clean water with food to help citizens get access to the supplies that they need. To make public safety a priority while reducing crime, I liked on how you worked with both parties Democrats and Republicans on creating a medium prison to put violent offenders in prison to reduce harm to the public.  When President Bill Clinton appointed for being the U.S. Ambassador to Ireland in 1998-2001, I liked on how you worked on finding ways to improve relations with the U.S. and Ireland on like trade with improving worker’s rights. Also in your role as Ambassador of Ireland I liked on how you worked hard to find ways to reduce tension between North Ireland and other Ireland political parties by decommissioning of weapons and making sure the Belfast Peace Agreement didn’t get weaken in order to have peace along with finding ways to improve relations between Ireland and Britain.

Governor Sullivan, your work really inspired me to be interested in studying history. At Washtenaw Community College, I took a 20^th century history class where I got to learn about how different events, people, and many others led different countries including the U.S. to change. In my class, my teacher gave a lecture about Ireland, explained about Ireland political parties conflict with one another, and explained about the Belfast Peace Agreement stopped the violence of Ireland political parties. After he gave that lecture I got very interested in learning more about your role as U.S. Ambassador to Ireland.  Also when I researched about you, I got very interested in learning about your work as a two-term Governor of Wyoming and I was very impressed with your record on being bipartisan by working with other political parties on finding ways to reduce crime, being a strong supporter for Civil Rights to help protect people who are different from discrimination, protecting the environment from pollution with cleaning up toxic chemicals to help improve public safety, and many others.  I’m really inspired by your work and how it makes a great difference and it even made me more motivated to become more interested in studying history to learn how these core values are important to society.  My future goal is to use what I learn in history along with learning different core values to teach people about the need to improve society and to continue exploring different ideas to make history a better place.  Your work on Civil Rights really inspires me to work hard my disability which is Autism, and to continue working hard to overcome my struggles.

I strongly believe that you really made a great difference as Governor of Wyoming on continuing your support of strengthening Civil Rights to help protect people who are different including implementing an executive order to protect workers from other forms of discrimination or harassment, forging a bipartisanship between both parties to find ways to make public safety a priority in order to reduce crime, using environmental clean ups to clean up toxic chemicals that polluted lands, national parks, Native American reservations. drinking water, and towns and do conservation on these areas to protect them from being disturbed. Another thing is I’m proud of your hard work on working to improve relations between U.S. and Ireland on trade and make sure that Ireland follows the Belfast Peace Agreement to reduce violence.  Thanks for taking the time to read my letter, inspiring me to be motivated to learn history with working hard on Autism, and making a great difference for our country and the world through your roles as Governor of Wyoming and U.S. Ambassador to Ireland.  I want to wish you well at LEWIS ROCA ROTHGERBER LLP where you can continue making a difference for society on your ideas

Sincerely,

Matthew B. Winick

Former Governor of Arizona and Former U.S. Department of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano

9/2/2015                                       

Ms. Janet Napolitano

c/o Office of the President

 University of California

1111 Franklin Street, 12^th Floor

Oakland, CA  94607
USA

Dear President Napolitano,

My name is Matthew Winick and I have a strong interest in studying history. The main reason I like studying history is to learn the need to make Civil Rights stronger to help protect people who are different from discrimination, protect the environment from pollution by implementing environmental protection with supporting renewable energy, improving healthcare to help people get the care they need, and many others.  President Napolitano, I find your work as an attorney, as U.S. Attorney for the District of Arizona, as Governor of Arizona, and later as Secretary of Homeland Security to be very inspiring to me.

When you were an attorney I liked on how you had the courage to be representing Anita Hill when she testified in the Senate Judiciary Committee against the U.S. Supreme Court nominee Clarence Thomas about how Clarence Thomas had sexually harassed her when they both worked in Equal Employment Opportunity Commission when the members of the Senate Judiciary Committee including the media said harsh words or were very critical about Ms. Hill’s testimony.   In your role as U.S. attorney for the District of Arizona, your commitment to find ways to reduce gun violence is common sense by pushing for laws to regulate guns sales, background checks to reduce a criminal from buying a weapon, and Youth Handgun Safety Act to make transfer of a gun or a handgun to a minor illegal when it will be used in a crime to help reduce youth violence.  Also in your role as U.S. attorney for the District of Arizona, I liked on how you pushed for the need to reduce violence against women by prosecuting violent offenders who travel to different states to commit a domestic violence and help women who are victims of violence or abuse get counseling, treatment with therapy that they need to improve mental health.  As Governor of Arizona in 2003-2009, I liked your commitment to be a supporter of Civil Rights to help protect minorities, women, and people with disabilities from being discriminated.  On improving the quality of the environment, I liked on how you supported and pushed for renewable energy like wind, solar, energy efficient products, and biofuel to reduce pollution and even reduce addiction to oil with gas.  On healthcare, I was amazed on your health care reform to improve long-term care for seniors including people with disabilities by finding ways to reduce high prescription cost of medicine, improve nursing homes to make them more efficient on taking care of patients, and expand on programs to help assist seniors including people with disabilities on learning different things and doing activities.  I was amazed by your commitment to improve education by increasing teacher’s pay to help teachers keep their jobs with working on improving their standards and push for voluntary all day kindergarten to help kindergartens get assistance on learning while giving parents an option to choose whether they can decide to allow their children to do full day kindergarten or do a half day kindergarten.  To work hard on finding ways to improve public safety along with finding ways to reduce counter terrorism, I was very proud of you accepting President Obama nomination of being Secretary of Homeland Security.  In your role as Secretary of Homeland Security, I liked on how you worked hard making the department work with state law enforcement and local law enforcement to find ways to reduce crime. Also I was very proud of you working hard to get funding for law enforcement including technology to reduce crime along with advocating for the need for ways to create law enforcement jobs when Congress from both political parties were not keen on the idea of using money to help reduce crime.

President Napolitano, your work on finding ways to reduce crime with protecting people who are different from being discriminated or targeted by a hate crime got me very interested in taking an Intro to Criminal Justice class at Washtenaw Community College in Ann Arbor, Michigan. In the class, I got to learn about how the courts work, Miranda laws, law enforcement, different ways to reduce crime along with violence, and learn different ideas of reform to the system to reduce crime while protecting people’s civil liberties.  My instructor was very helpful and worked with me on creating ideas to reform the criminal justice system like have treatment programs with community services for non-violent offenders including juveniles with drug users to help rehabilitate them, have educational programs to address the need to reduce drug abuse, gun violence, and sexual assault, have regulations on gun sales including background checks to reduce gun violence, and expand on mental health programs including counseling to help victims of crime or people with mental health issue in order to improve public safety.  Also your work as Governor of Arizona helped me get interested in history to understand the need to make society better by having Civil Rights to reduce discrimination, protect the environment to reduce pollution with improving public health, and many others.

                  I strongly believe that you made a great difference for history with finding ways to make society better, assisting women including victims of crime get the care they need, and working hard to reduce crime in your role as attorney, U.S. Attorney of Arizona, Governor of Arizona, and as Secretary of Homeland Security.  Even though Congress was difficult to work with I’m proud of your commitment to work hard with President Obama to make a difference in our country.  Thanks for taking the time to read my letter, working hard to make a difference, and inspiring me to be interested in learning law, history, and the criminal justice system. I wish you well on your role as President of University of California where you can use ideas to make a difference.

Sincerely,

Matthew B. Winick