This is an open letter to Gov. John deJongh Jr. and the V.I. senators.

I read the news of the stabbing of a person attending a memorial service for a murder victim who was stabbed to death over the weekend while his partner was being raped.

The next day I read two competing news stories. One was about the terror that a 73-year-old man suffered during a home invasion and a list of several other elderly people who have been attacked. The other was about the senators working on the question of whether deJongh overspent public money on improvements to his home.

I beg you, governor and senators, if you are not prepared to change the focus of your activities and begin to address the very serious issues of crime, education of the youth (over 20 percent of the high school age youth are not in school and do not have jobs) and the inept, corrupt government bureaucracy, please do your community the favor of not running for office again.

You have a very short time to begin to tackle these important problems.

- Greg Miller lives on St. Thomas.