To the editor—

Or more specifically: to the Simmons community—

Let’s forget about the peanut butter. No seriously, leave it alone. I’m so amazingly sick of hearing people complain about the peanut butter being removed from Bartol like it’s the end of the world.

Your life will go on without one less spread to put on your bagel in the morning, and quite frankly the constant griping is spectacularly ignorant and insensitive. One complaint is understandable, but time and time again I’ve heard people say things like “I know someone’s allergic, but why do they have to get rid of peanut butter?!”

Sure, maybe you’re a little inconvenienced because if you want a PB&J sandwich you now have to go back to your dorm and make it yourself, but think about the people who have allergies and are inconvenienced literally every time they walk into any food establishment and have to worry about the safety of everything they might want to eat.

They didn’t just take away the peanut butter to annoy you, I promise. They removed it from the dining hall because there are students here who are deathly allergic to peanuts. Deathly. Allergic. Like, if they are near peanut butter, they die.

I know a lot of people don’t have any food allergies, and maybe it’s hard to comprehend the seriousness of the condition, but I think most of us are capable of understanding the concept of death.

Personally, I don’t understand all the complaining; is peanut butter really that good? I wouldn’t know, I’ve had a nut allergy my whole life. And while I might not know why peanut butter is such an important addition to the dining hall, I do know how hurtful it is to hear people be so insensitive to a potentially life-threatening condition.

You don’t get to eat peanut butter at one location on this entire campus, some of us don’t get to eat peanut butter ever and have to live on a constant lookout for hidden peanuts in seemingly innocent food.

Let’s all just agree to leave the peanut butter thing alone, and use our prodigious complaining powers on a more worthy subject.

Thanks in advance!

-Jessie K