The recent incident at the Sound Transit Center where a young man was beaten angers me a great deal.

I do not blame our government or anyone specifically, but I do blame those that believe we should not talk too openly about what is happening in our city because it might reflect poorly on our community’s name. Part of life’s lessons learned is that problems do not go away by ignoring them and usually fester into greater ones when you do.

If things progress as they have over the last year or so, especially at the Sound Transit Center, our city’s reputation will be that Federal Way is the “Newark of the Northwest.” Many of us have worked too long and too hard to make this a good community to live in, and we must not allow this to happen.

We need to address the problem of gang violence, head on, in Federal Way. We specifically need to take a hard look at what has been happening at our Sound Transit Center since it was built. Gangs and all those that would do violent acts there and in our community should learn that they will be dealt with harshly. Everything we can do to make them feel unwelcome here should be done.

I sincerely hope that the people of Federal Way do not take their usual “ho-hum just another violent day in the neighborhood” approach to this matter. I used to love living in this city. Now I have my doubts. We should all care about our community’s future. We need to tackle this problem now.

Bob Kellogg, Federal Way