Lighten up

Re: Executing The Jester, Barbara Kay, June 24. There’s no doubt a gaggle of screaming, politically correct fanatics has created turmoil, but the real offenders are those who give in to a tiny but vociferous clutch of whiners. Barbara Kay refers to Dr. Lazar Greenfield and his mild joke that cost him the editorship of Surgery News and the presidency of the American College of Surgeons. It’s abhorrent that one comment can destroy the career of a distinguished man, but while I have no sympathy for the Twitter crowd, I direct my ire and my condemnation at the journal and the college for caving in. They’re quivering cowards. Just once, I’d love to see an organization say “up yours” — or its professional equivalent — to the rantings of a group too small even to be called a mob.

Jolyon Hallows, Burnaby, B. C.