Readers React: When your free speech encroaches on my freedom

The 1st Amendment is a potent protector of our freedom, but it is subjected by the courts and others to misapplication, which damages its stature. (“Free speech: Isn’t that what college is supposed to be about?,” Editorial, July 2)

Just one aspect of so-called free speech that seems to disregard the personal rights of others occurs when I can’t avoid street demonstrations or orations. Surely we should have the right to choose not to hear or listen to public oratory, and such free speech should be confined to designated areas like college quads or speakers’ corners in parks.

An involuntary audience is an audience whose rights might have been violated.

Joyce F. Barrier, Riverside