Free Speech: Looks Great on Paper

[Short Writing Exercise From College] 
We’re supposed to be adults. Ninety eight percent of us can vote. Being
able to vote, that’s a form of free speech. But on the campus of a
university where the president claims to be in loco parentis over his
ADULT students, I have my doubts about how free speech actually is.


I came to college believing I was of age to make my own choices and be
free thinking. I got here and realized I was wrong. College is about
someone else telling you what’s right and wrong and true and false.
When you disagree, most of the time you’re wrong. It feels more like
censorship to me.


There are things we’re not supposed to talk about. We still do,
quietly, away from prying ears. As if we are not free to speak of those
things as adults. Maybe you think that’s free speech. I wouldn’t agree.


Free Speech on a University isn’t just about what articles we’re
allowed to have in the paper; about what you say, he says, she says, or
I say in general conversation. It’s about freedom of thought and
independence and being an adult. It’s about not being told what I have
to believe, or what is right to believe.


Free speech is about having free choice.


I’m an adult, I should be allowed to think, act, and speak like one at
a University I am PAYING for an education on. But I guess I’m not
allowed to have those rights, even if I am an adult.