Speaker Jon Hansen better call up the Charlie Kirk brigades to wage rightwing-snowflake war against the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at USD–Sioux Falls. The obviously woke OLLI held a seminar yesterday promoting women, and history, and women’s history:
At Avera Hall on the Sioux Falls USD campus, people gathered to learn a history lesson from the people who lived it.
“It is local women telling their stories of things they experience in the workforce. Essentially during the 1960s, 70s and early 80s, as women were getting out, breaking those glass ceilings and doing things that women had not done before,” OLLI Leadership Council Member, Mary Enright said.
…“We’re recording these stories so that they’re not forgotten. They’re not shoved aside in history. Our members are being asked to be inspired by these women and then to take home archival paper that we have for them so that they can write their own stories,” Enright said.
…Women at the event were able to take a paper to fill out their story and what they went through. That will be archived at the Center for Western studies at Augustana University [Summer Raderschadt, “Learning About Women’s History from Those Who Lived It,” KELO-TV, 2025.10.07].
I’m surprised Pete Hegseth didn’t order the National Guard to Sioux Falls to quell this clearly insurrectionist outbreak of divisive anti-male feminazism. And I’m surprised Speaker Hansen hasn’t rattled USD President Sheila Gestring’s cage to demand that she evict such controversy-stirring dividers from her public campus.
Women’s history shouldn’t be divisive or controversial, but Saint Charlie Kirk would be appalled:
Turning Point USA, which is now headed by Charlie Kirk’s widow, Erika Kirk, advocates against feminism and encourages women to be homemakers who “submit” to their husbands, stating that “the kitchen is where the real revolution starts” [Emma Cordover, “What Trump’s New Civics Education Program Means for Women’s History,” Politico, 2025.09.26].
If any Hansen/Kirkites feel oppressed by OLLI’s humble assertion that we ought to tell and remember women’s stories, OLLI’s Fall 2025 catalog offers this Statement on Controversial Issues and Speakers:
The sentiments and beliefs of some of our instructors may, on occasion, be controversial or divisive. To ensure the inherent rights of free speech and freedom of expression, the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at the University of South Dakota will not censure or limit any materials or opinions expressed by the persons involved [OLLI at USD, Fall 2025 Catalog, p. 1].
Wow—a straight-up affirmation of the First Amendment? From a USD entity? I’m surprised President Gestring hasn’t chided OLLI for being so direct and not subordinating talk of free speech to admonitions to all speakers to mind their manners.
Possibly Related: On Thursday, SDSU Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Political Science Bob Burns presents the second session of “The Evolution and Devolution of Democracy in the United States“:
Essential elements of modern democracy and the emergence of various elements in our political system over time will be presented. The erosion of certain elements in the present day will be noted [OLLI, Fall 2025 Catalog, p. 9].