My brother owns a business in California. He operates in two of California's four bankrupt cities. His business in one of those bankrupt cities was robbed and he found out that the police can do nothing about the robbery. The police department has been gutted -- the police only address the absolute worst criminal activity.

The robber is doing great; he switches back and forth robbing one town then back to the other town. The bankrupt cities have no money to provide basic police protection, fire protection, trash pickup, etc. Criminals operate almost at will.

This will happen in Illinois if our politicians don't fix our pension fund and debt problem. I believe I read that Illinois' bonds are now the worst rated bonds in the country -- worse than California's.

The politicians we elected are wasting our money; they have no idea what they are doing with your money and mine. The state next door to us, Wisconsin, fixed its out-of-control pension problem. We could do exactly what Wisconsin did and the problem would be resolved.

People reading this should notify their representatives that they will not vote for them unless this problem is fixed, and soon.

These politicians are, in effect, stealing money from you and me. Anyone who would do this is too stupid or too corrupt to represent the public.

Joseph L. Fairbanks

Fairview Heights