Negative nerds and nellies. The world seems filled with these types of personalities today. We see them in the newspapers, hear them on the airwaves, everywhere — they’re endemic, almost like the plague. In fact, I think they are a plague to the common people.

It’s quite easy to fill up newspapers with letters and articles by columnists who attack people, elected or not, like we often see in the Mirror simply “because they can.” Shouldn’t they be setting a good if not a better example for tomorrow’s generation?

Aren’t those who write those nasty tidbits of gossip able to rise above the fray? The Mirror has a gossip as a columnist who seemingly tears into people under the guise of making them listen, but it is only offensive and tends to make those attacked move further away from any intellectual discussion. Is it really a tact to attract readership? If so shame on you.

We have a lot of issues facing our community today, i.e. light rail, which is going to bring heavy costs and negative displacement to Federal Way residents and businesses. Just today I walked inside The Commons mall. It seems like half the storefronts are closed. One was cleverly turned into a coin operated soda dispenser, really?

The Federal Way Chamber should be working to attract new businesses alongside the city’s department of economic development. OK, Mama Stortini’s is nice but one must wonder if its prices may not be appreciated by our lower economic class. Betcha their workers will make on average more than most restaurant workers in Federal Way. Billy McHales has a great model, an affordable menu, and participates in community events. I think Billy McHales and the East India Grill are the to-go places in Federal Way. No they are not paying me to write this.

And my stance on the “Great Staircase to Heaven” is the money could be better spent.

Norma Blanchard

Federal Way