Diabetes isn't funny

To the Editor:

It is irresponsible for the Yale Herald to print such offensive pieces as Bill Marino's "Internships: porpoiseless, unrewarding, and sad" [YH, 4/9/99]. I was outraged at his description of diabetics as "prone to forget stuff that the rest of us can easily remember" and "easy to swindle." Also, Marino wrote, "you can tell them you will be really nice to them and then be really mean to them" because they apparently will "accept your exploitation of them."

Did truth perhaps take a back seat to comedy? Since the article was obviously meant to be funny, I wanted to point out some other things that are "amusing" about diabetes.

1. Diabetes is the leading cause of kidney failure, adult blindness, and non-traumatic amputations.

2. Life expectancy of people with diabetes averages 15 years less than that of people without diabetes.

3. About 16 million Americans have diabetes.

4. Diabetes kills one American every three minutes.

Maybe next time Marino wants to be funny, he can joke about cancer, AIDS, or some other horrible affliction. I'm sure many people would enjoy a good laugh at diseases that kill millions of people.

—Robert H. Hunt, BR '01

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