Tea party member sparks varying student response
Controversial speaker Allen Unruh sparked tension at the Univeristy of South Dakota April 3 as he addressed issues like abortion, the Affordable Care Act and the current state of American affairs with students.
Unruh’s presentation was entitled “What’s Right about America,” and preached certain aspects of American life including work ethic and values. Unruh said Americans have entered a period of time he calls “a crisis of values.”
“Incentives are what drive America. It used to be ‘Give me liberty or give me death,’ and now it’s just ‘Give me,’ ” he said.
Unruh is a chiropractor in Sioux Falls, but is known for his role in forming the South Dakota Tea Party.
During the course of his presentation, Unruh compared the Affordable Care Act to tyranny. He argued the takeover of the auto industry, banking, education and healthcare in the United States by the federal government is leading to a “run away” government.
“Central planners in an elitist part of the country are going to determine the healthcare for all Americans,” Unruh said.
He also took to criticizing welfare, and said Americans do not need it and getting out of poverty is a matter of work ethic.
“We’re losing our work ethic. One hundred million people are not working in our country right now. How long can we exist this way when the few people that are working are out numbered by the non-workers?” Unruh said.
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the current unemployment rate in the United States as of February 2014 is 6.7 percent or about 21 million people.
Unruh was also vocal about his fight to ban abortion. He and his wife, Leslie Unruh, are the founders of the Alpha Center, an organization dedicated to finding alternatives to abortion for teenagers. There are currently Alpha Centers located in cities across the United States including Sioux Falls and Sioux City.
Unruh said 33 percent of all pregnancies in the U.S. end in abortion. He said the “war on women” today consists of “people that force their decisions on women.” He told students about a woman who he said was coerced into having an abortion by her husband holding a gun to her head. Unruh said women must be protected from “coercive abortion.”
According to statistics collected by the Guttmacher Institute, a non-profit organization dedicated to the research and education of reproductive health and rights, 21 percent of all pregnancies (excluding miscarriages) end in abortion.
Marshall Damgaard, a lecturer of political science and the person that invited Unruh to speak at USD, said the presentation was part of the class Political Science 415: Case Studies in South Dakota Politics and Government course. Over the semester, more than 30 poltical speakers are invited to engage the class.
“The speakers represent virtually every stripe of the political spectrum,” Damgaard said.
Sophomore Nathan Irwin said he enjoyed hearing Unruh’s point of view, and was suprised to agree with some of his viewpoints.
“I expected to come in and disagree with many things he said, but I ended up agreeing with many other things he said including his point on abortion,” Irwin said.
Other students, however, disagreed with what the Tea Party member said.
Joe De La Rosa, a graduate assistant and a law student at USD, vocally disagreed with Unruh on many topics. De Le Rosa said he went to the presentation, because he thought there might be misinformation spread by the Tea Party member.
“I knew that, because there was not a lot of people that they might not hear an opposing view point, and I thought it was necessary to be there to represent a different view,” De La Rosa said.
Photo: Allen Unruh presents in the Muenster University Center. (Malachi Petersen/The Volante)
