Allen West visited a campus for MLK Day. What happened after he spoke will shock you.

As part of Young America’s Foundation’s Wendy P. McCaw Freedom Lecture Series, Lt. Col. Allen West visited Grand Valley State University in Michigan on Monday to deliver a lecture in commemoration of his personal hero, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. The event was hosted by the school’s Young Americans for freedom chapter.

Students on college campuses are constantly exposed to anti-American rhetoric from leftist professors and speakers, accusing our country of being racist and sexist and hateful. Rarely are students ever able to hear anything positive about our great country.Bold and unapologetic conservative leaders like Allen West are typically met with hostility on America’s increasingly liberal college campuses. But something different happened last night.The lecture hall was PACKED to capacity with students and community members, all eager to hear West’s powerful message. He spoke movingly about his admiration for Dr. King, race relations, American exceptionalism, the Second Amendment, leadership in Washington, and the threat of radical Islamic terrorism.West told students to “carry on” Dr. King’s banner for the sake of the country. “Dr. King stood up because he knew that those words that Thomas Jefferson wrote in 1776 had to come to fruition,” he told students.He also spoke about the negative impacts of the dissolution of the black family, remarking, “Having a mother and father in the home is very important to the success of America.”On poverty, West told the crowd, “Be careful of people who talk about equality of outcomes, but not of opportunity.” He asked students to reconsider their definition of justice, noting, “Justice means not being deterred from achieving your own dreams.”His advice to young Americans? “Go out and understand that you live in a great nation that does not regard anything about your skin color.”West also touched on abortion, telling the crowd “I don’t think Dr. King would be very happy with what Margaret Sanger stands for because it has decimated a community.”When a student asked him to comment on the Black Lives Matter movement, West responded proudly that “all lives matter.”On the Second Amendment he urged attendees to do their research, saying, “Whenever people go out and try to disarm a population, it doesn’t end well. Study your history.”West also spoke extensively about foreign policy, remarking, “I gotta stand up and fight evil and tyranny because I don’t want it knocking on my door… I can’t sit back and say [ISIS] is over there because I know it’s here.” He also said, “We need more people in the US House of Representatives that have been on the other side of an AK-47.”West concluded his remarks by telling the young audience, “The exceptionalism of America is in every single one of us.”Despite the fact that this lecture took place on a college campus, the crowd enthusiastically jumped out of their seats and gave West a standing ovation.How often does that happen?Thank you, Allen West, for providing the education that many of these students’ liberal professors have failed to administer.Check out some pictures from the event below… <img decoding="async" fetchpriority="high" src="data:image/svg+xml,%3Csvg%20xmlns='http://www.w3.org/2000/svg'%20viewBox='0%200%20475%20266'%3E%3C/svg%3E" alt="gvsuwest1" title="gvsuwest1" width="475" height="266" style="width: 475px; height: 266px;" data-lazy-src="http://dev.yaf.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/Screen Shot 2016-01-19 at 3.58.33 PM.png" /><noscript><img decoding="async" fetchpriority="high" src="http://dev.yaf.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/Screen Shot 2016-01-19 at 3.58.33 PM.png" alt="gvsuwest1" title="gvsuwest1" width="475" height="266" style="width: 475px; height: 266px;" /></noscript> <img decoding="async" src="data:image/svg+xml,%3Csvg%20xmlns='http://www.w3.org/2000/svg'%20viewBox='0%200%20475%20266'%3E%3C/svg%3E" alt="gvsuwest2" title="gvsuwest2" width="475" height="266" style="width: 475px; height: 266px;" data-lazy-src="http://dev.yaf.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/Screen Shot 2016-01-19 at 3.58.25 PM.png" /><noscript><img decoding="async" src="http://dev.yaf.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/Screen Shot 2016-01-19 at 3.58.25 PM.png" alt="gvsuwest2" title="gvsuwest2" width="475" height="266" style="width: 475px; height: 266px;" /></noscript><img decoding="async" src="data:image/svg+xml,%3Csvg%20xmlns='http://www.w3.org/2000/svg'%20viewBox='0%200%20475%20262'%3E%3C/svg%3E" alt="gvsuwest3" title="gvsuwest3" width="475" height="262" style="width: 475px; height: 262px;" data-lazy-src="http://dev.yaf.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/Screen Shot 2016-01-19 at 3.58.19 PM.png" /><noscript><img decoding="async" src="http://dev.yaf.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/Screen Shot 2016-01-19 at 3.58.19 PM.png" alt="gvsuwest3" title="gvsuwest3" width="475" height="262" style="width: 475px; height: 262px;" /></noscript><img decoding="async" src="data:image/svg+xml,%3Csvg%20xmlns='http://www.w3.org/2000/svg'%20viewBox='0%200%20475%20264'%3E%3C/svg%3E" alt="gwsuwest4" title="gwsuwest4" width="475" height="264" style="width: 475px; height: 264px;" data-lazy-src="http://dev.yaf.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/Screen Shot 2016-01-19 at 3.57.23 PM.png" /><noscript><img decoding="async" src="http://dev.yaf.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/Screen Shot 2016-01-19 at 3.57.23 PM.png" alt="gwsuwest4" title="gwsuwest4" width="475" height="264" style="width: 475px; height: 264px;" /></noscript><img decoding="async" src="data:image/svg+xml,%3Csvg%20xmlns='http://www.w3.org/2000/svg'%20viewBox='0%200%20475%20264'%3E%3C/svg%3E" alt="gvsuwest5" title="gvsuwest5" width="475" height="264" style="width: 475px; height: 264px;" data-lazy-src="http://dev.yaf.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/Screen Shot 2016-01-19 at 3.57.10 PM.png" /><noscript><img decoding="async" src="http://dev.yaf.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/Screen Shot 2016-01-19 at 3.57.10 PM.png" alt="gvsuwest5" title="gvsuwest5" width="475" height="264" style="width: 475px; height: 264px;" /></noscript>Allen West will be addressing Young America’s Foundation’s upcoming Nashville Freedom Conference from February 12-13. <a href="http://dev.yaf.org/eventdetails.aspx?id=14837" title="Sign up to attend the conference here! " class="broken_link">Sign up to attend the conference here! </a>

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