Jake Schlossberg People talk. People preach their opinions whether you want to hear them or not. People are often wrong. That is where we run into trouble. When somebody presents an opinion as fact, they are also saying that the opposition to an opinion of theirs is wrong. By remembering the very definition of an opinion, one can easily see the problem with that. I recently wrote an article about rising cafeteria prices. While some of my article presented ideas that were worthy of an audience’s thoughts, most of it was more or less a mess. It was un-researched, far too opinionated, and insulting to the room in which we spend so much of our time. I didn’t realize how wrong my article was until I read a response written by Quest foods themselves. I was very happy to get the record straight, and resolved to make certain that everyone had the right idea, too. Our cafeteria features organic food in various preparations, from sandwiches that are kept warm to the pasta at the action station. These sort of unique options cost a little more money from the customers, us. While they may seem pricy to some, when compared to the eateries surrounding the school, the prices are rather reasonable. We’ll stick with the coffee example of my last article. A coffee at school is $1.25. Just across the street at Starbucks, my regular order costs me $3.99. This is quite a difference, and quite an improvement. For as much as I drink coffee, I need a price drop like that. The most important error I made was in discussing the issue of negative balance. I described a situation in which Kaya Romeo, a junior, was not notified of her negative balance until she owed a decently hefty sum. During the first week or two of school, Quest put notices in all the mailboxes of people with negative balances. While Kaya’s problem occurred a few weeks after that, it’s the same principle. I painted a picture of a food service that didn’t care about our money, one that didn’t care for us at all. This is obviously not the case. Since their arrival in our cafeteria, Quest Foodservice has been presenting us with quality organic foods for the prices that they need to be, even less. We are undeniably to be presented with the products that they feature, and we need to respect that.]]>