Dear Mr. Federal Way, your column is the highlight of my regular read throughout the Federal Way Mirror. Your commentary brings to light many issues that I had not considered.

In reference to your Dec. 20 piece regarding RoadSnacks, is your comment regarding the use of the g-word in reference to the slang — “that’s really ghetto” or “he’s really ghetto”?

After reading your opinion today, and having never heard of RoadSnacks, I Googled it. Apparently, the column is the voice-nattering nabobs as their headlines include 10 most drunk, 10 most miserable, 10 most redneck, 10 worst dating, along with 10 most ghetto. The one about 10 most redneck cities in Alaska was pretty funny, not because of the facts but because of the term “redneck.” The use of redneck in reference to anyone living in the state of Alaska, unless that individual’s place of origin was from a rural area of the contiguous United States, just shows the ignorance of the authors of RoadSnacks.

Regarding the word “ghetto,” I think that it is important to point out that ghetto IS an appropriate term when contextually utilized. The true ghettos of Europe, Africa, the Middle East and the Asia sub-continent bar their residents from living outside of the defined ghetto area and limit the residents’ interaction with residents of other neighboring areas.

Neighborhoods where residents cannot get work permits or become citizens are ghettos. Refuge camps are ghettos. Gaza has become a ghetto. My grandparents were born and raised in a ghetto in Minsk, Belarussia, as part of the Pale — a series of European ghettos.

Areas of Detroit that are without grocery stores or public transportation are on the edge of the term ghetto. RoadSnacks is just a person or group of persons who are applying their own layer of commentary to the flood of anonymous hyperbole that is so common on the Internet.

There is no one — individual or governmental — who limits any resident of Federal Way from freely entering or leaving (baring probationary or medical reasons) as he or she chooses. This includes but is not limited to attending public schools, the use of public transportation, the owning property (real or material), the right and or ablility to earn a living, or, most importantly, the choice to live or not to live within the city of Federal Way.

Being ghetto is just a slang term. The city of Federal Way is 180 degrees from ghetto.

Jann Perez, Federal Way