Blaming public workers has to stop

I thought I would take a minute to respond to Ronald Fuchs who recently wrote a letter to eliminate all government worker pensions. On behalf of the police officers who guard you, your family and your house every day, thank you. On behalf of the firefighters who are willing to run into your burning house and rescue you and your family, thank you.

On behalf of the paramedics who may cut you out of a car someday or administer CPR to save your life if you have a heart attack, thank you. On behalf of the sheriff’s deputies who work in the jails and the courts to make sure criminals stay where they’re supposed to, thank you.

On behalf of the public works employees who fix your streets and come out in the middle of winter to fix your water main break, thank you. On behalf of every public sector employee who comes to work every day, contributes to a pension fund month after month, year after year, hoping only to have enough to have a somewhat decent retirement after working 30 years, thank you. Thank you for being so narrow-minded and blaming us for all the politicians in this state, and the state itself who have failed to make the mandated contributions to our pension funds.

You can’t imagine the pride we feel working for a state, and even municipalities, that want to strip us of what we’ve earned and contributed to for decades.

Steve Anderson

Hoffman Estates