After seeing the leaked video of a University of Oklahoma fraternity Sigma Alpha Epsilon chanting a racist song, it made me reflect on the whole dynamic of college fraternities and sororities.

It made me wonder how many people on the bus were uncomfortable with the chant or baffled by the frat’s ignorance or, better yet, how many of the students chanted along with gusto.

Perhaps the fraternity was singing the song out of tradition – as many frats and sororities are known to have.

Some Oklahoma City residents who have shown interest in promoting bicycle infrastructure and development should continue to be encouraged.

In 2008, the Oklahoma City Bicycle Transportation Plan was approved, which envisioned the eventual creation of 200 miles of bike lanes to be installed in Oklahoma City with federal grant money. In 2012, 70 miles of bike lanes were installed and in 2014, approval was given for installation of the other 62.

Bicycles are a great mode of transportation. They provide benefits to both the rider and society. Bicycles are cheap to own and operate. Used bikes can be found at pawn shops for under $100 and even top-of-the-line new models are a fraction of the price of a new car.

Oklahoma ranks 48th nationwide for the number of adults suffering with mental illness and access to care. Substance Abuse Commissioner Terri White said  the only state with a higher proportion of mentally ill people is Utah and the only state with more serious mental illness is West Virginia.

Twenty-two percent Of Oklahomans have a mental illness, 5.24 percent have a serious mental illness such as major depressive disorder or bipolar disorder, and 70 percent of all mentally ill people in Oklahoma go untreated.

As a white American male, my life has been amazing (not that I care). In the 22 years I’ve been alive, I’ve had zero obstacles to overcome. There are Kardashians who have worked harder than I. Literally, the only thing standing in the way of my success is myself.

I am in my fourth year of getting my two-year associate degree. I have failed three or four classes because I didn’t feel like doing some of the work. I made straight As in school when I was younger. One day, for some bizarre reason, I got lazy. I’ve been lazy ever since.

I’m ashamed to admit that, but I’m not the only one in this situation. Many of us are riding yachts on a chocolate river to Amazing Futureville. Instead of firing up the engines and driving the boat, however, we’re all taking naps on the deck.

Not too long ago a customer at an Applebee’s refused to leave his waiter a reasonable tip because he felt the employee did not deserve the money.

The customer wrote on the receipt, “I give God 10 percent, why do you get 18?” and left the waiter no tip.

While I do not know the circumstances of what happened or how well the waiter did his job, I still believe even if the waiter’s service wasn’t satisfactory, he should have at least received a 10 percent tip.

I have recently backed away from social media websites because of the platform they provide for people to argue, bully and be hateful toward others.

For some reason, people treat the Internet like a mesh screen door where they can yell at people through the screen, disagreeing with them on all sorts of issues with the response being more yelling, but never any personal interaction.

Some of these people believe in things enough that they would argue about them in the real world as well, but many of them do not.

President Obama’s last two speeches hit on a specific topic that people all over the country are talking about: free 2-year college for everyone who “works for it.”

While many would argue it’s a good idea and something that can benefit this country, I disagree.

It’s true that higher education is expensive and can cause enormous debt, but those who reach, work and make the effort for it can get through college with little to no debt.

According to debt.org, an estimated $46 billion in grants and scholarships is awarded by the U.S. Department of Education, as well as an additional $3.3 billion in gift aid from churches, foundations and non-profit groups.

It’s officially been 30 days since Jan. 1, which means it’s been 30 days since many folks made New Year’s Resolutions. At this point, those people are either still going strong or have stopped somewhere during the second week of January. Congratulations to both groups.

Many Americans made some goal about losing weight, saving more money, or becoming more organized. Those are the top three resolutions according to the Huffington Post, along with the other top seven: enjoying life to the fullest, staying fit and healthy, learning something exciting, quitting smoking, helping others achieve their dreams, falling in love and spending more time with family.

However, it’s highly unlikely anyone will see a New Year’s Resolution through to 2016. I’m not being a Negative Nancy; this is just the cold, harsh reality.

Everybody has an opinion about the Oklahoma hoodie ban, the proposed bill known as SB 13.

Social media clamors with pictures of rebels with their hoods up, standing against a bill that will most likely never see the light of day while all kinds of legislation without a nickname passes under our noses.

Strangely, if your act of defiance showcases a consumer product, like buying a certain chicken sandwich or snapping a selfie in a sweatshirt you were going to wear anyway, it’s viewed as an acceptable form of protest.

Around this time last year, I wrote an editorial about Facebook gathering a plethora of information about each user account. The information would be simple things, such as what you “like” and what your hobbies may be. This information is gathered in order to serve up the best advertisements for your viewing pleasure. For example, if you “like” music or a page about music, you could quickly see ads for Guitar Center on your feed.

But this year, I’m focusing on other things happening with Facebook. An example would be every user posting a BuzzFeed article for “7 Ways to Have a Perfect Complexion” or “5 Things You Didn’t Know about Jennifer Lawrence’s Butt.”