The articles by Jay Hancock and Marta Mossberg in Tuesday's Sun ("Pension crisis? Candidates little help" and "Md. retirement fund: Paying for poor performance," Oct. 12) are very timely. The "canary in the coal mine" sings again, this time to warn state pensioners, both present and future, about how poorly the current and prior administrations in the state have managed their pension plans.

Mr. Hancock pointed out, once again, how the time bomb of unfunded liabilities is ticking even louder today than it was the last time he and The Sun covered this issue. Ms. Mossberg showed us how poor performance in the management of existing funds was ignored and bonuses were still given to pension administration managers. And all the while the back loaded pension obligation builds each year, with no level of future performance in the existing funds ever being able to offset the growing deficit.

If I were a state employee or retiree I would be marching on Annapolis to protest the lack of a plan to solve the pension and medical benefit funding issues. We have only to look overseas in Europe to hear about the riots and demonstrations in many countries over this issue. Those countries, France, Spain, Italy and Greece to name a few, are having to pay retirees out of current revenues, forcing cuts in all kinds of social programs. Our state and country is not far behind this situation, especially with the recent deficit busting health care legislation at the federal level and the failure of federal legislators to face up to growing Social Secuity and Medicare program deficits.

And finally, the debate between former Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. and Gov. Martin O'Malley shed no new light on this important problem for our state. So, alas, no solution is in sight. Just more meaningless debates and TV ads. Is it any wonder that the electorate can't muster more than 30 percent voter turnout? The lack of faith in the present political system is overwhelming.

Sam Davis, Towson