I read Mr. Doran's piece regarding obesity and the need for obese people to laugh at themselves, "Laughter is the best medicine for obesity" (Aug.1). The entire article angered me quite a bit, and yet I expect my anger will be dismissed as just another side effect of the humorless fat people Mr. Doran makes reference to. So instead of spewing angry rhetoric, I would like to address the blatant cruelty that Mr. Doran's column reflects.

I don't believe cruelty in any form should be tolerated or propagated and that is exactly what his piece does. Thomas Buxton wrote, "One of the ill effects of cruelty is that it makes the bystanders cruel." While Mr. Doran himself may not believe he is being cruel, his lackadaisical attitude towards the obese incites cruelty from others.

The National Association to Advance Fat Acceptance is a well recognized organization that has probably been around since well before Mr. Doran was born, yet he dismisses the need for it. He maintains that while obese people are discriminated against, they deserve no form of social justice or protection against said discrimination. This is cruelty and malice in its worst form, disguised as jest.

Mr. Doran himself claims to be overweight, and says he pays no mind to people mocking him. Regarding this, I am reminded of a quote by Fredrick Douglass: "Find out just what people will submit to, and you have found out the exact amount of injustice and wrong which will be imposed upon them; and these will continue until they are resisted with either words or blows, or both. The limits of tyrants are prescribed by the endurance of those whom they oppress." Mr. Doran may be willing to submit to injustice, but he should not assume everyone is.

Holli Knepper

Las Vegas, Nev.