“I think Western students take their rights for granted and also don’t realize that there are conservative people at this college,” Rita said. “You don’t even have to be conservative to support the First Amendment right to free speech.”Rita said their goal for the number of signatures and statements on the ball was around 100, but they ended up surpassing that with between 200 and 300. Sophomore Jackson Winner, vice president of the Western chapter of YAL said they were glad to hear Western does not have any “free-speech zones” on campus but saw this as a good chance to remind students they have free speech wherever they are. “With our recent incident with the Yik Yak thing and the student leadership, we thought it would be good to come out here and positively promote free speech,” Winner said. “You can’t threaten people as that guy did, but you do have the right to free speech and to say what you want to say in a constructive manner.” Winner said any type of writing on the ball was welcomed, whether it be controversial and spark conversation or encourage others to comment. Sophomore Cameron Hazzard said he was interested to see what was written on the ball, as he had recently seen chalk writing around Western’s campus regarding right-winged ideals. Hazzard said he feels Western’s climate is generally so left-winged and those who share different views may find it difficult to express their opinions. Hazzard, who wrote “Take advantage of your democracy! Your social presence does nothing to determine your future! Don’t allow a dying generation to control your future,”said he doesn’t think our generation takes advantage of free speech as it should. “We’re the electronic generation and so we are constantly on the internet, constantly on Twitter, having a social presence about our opinions,” Hazzard said. “But when it comes down to actually voting for the people we’re representing on social media, we don’t take advantage of our rights to democracy.”
