The OU team of Eli Burtrum, a sophomore education major from Joplin, Missouri, and Aaron Ruby, a sophomore psychology major from Birmingham, England, won the 2026 Pi Kappa Delta National Debate Championship this past weekend at Missouri State University! #ouforevermore
Truth is, when you're up in the middle of the night, taking care of an aging parent w/health issues, seeing others argue out their blow hole about their take on the state of any union seems pretty irrelevant and idiotic.
Many of our alumni remember a moment when someone at OU opened a door for them.
A scholarship.
A professor.
A coach.
A mentor.
Expanding Opportunity means ensuring today’s students experience that same moment, the one that changes everything.
#OUForeverMore#ExpandingOpportunity
I do not think we are watching kids fall apart…
I think we are watching adults fall apart, and kids are paying the price.
You see it in schools, at ballgames, in restaurants, and on the roads. You see it in the way a child looks at an adult like the adult is the problem for saying no.
Parents are not parenting these days. Not enough.
Not consistently.
Not in the way kids need.
If we keep pretending everything is fine, we are going to raise a generation that never learned boundaries, never learned respect, and never learned how to handle life when it says no.
I see three kinds of parents right now.
• Parents who are self focused
This is the hardest group for society because nothing gets corrected. Everything becomes an excuse. Everything becomes somebody else’s fault.
They are not always bad people. Many are simply repeating what they lived. Their kids grow up without guard rails, without direction, without correction, without discipline, without the steady love that says, I care enough to stop you.
• Parents who are surviving
These parents love their kids and want to do it right, but they are getting crushed by rent, groceries, car payments, medical bills, overtime, and a world where a livable wage feels out of reach. So they work, and they work, and they work.
While they are doing everything for their children, they barely get to see their children. Kids still need what they have always needed: presence, consistency, boundaries, correction, love, and attention.
• Parents many of us aspire to be like
Attentive, loving, present, willing to say no, and not afraid to lead. What often gets missed is that many of these adults did not grow up with that kind of parenting.
Some came from self focused homes…
Some came from homes that were just surviving…
What changed their path was influence?
Somewhere along the way, someone stepped in and noticed them. A neighbor, a grandparent, a teacher, a coach, a mentor, or a friend’s parent. Someone outside the family circle gave them what they were not getting at home.
Kids need to hear the word no. Not constantly, but enough to learn boundaries, respect, patience, and self control.
No is not mean…
No is protection…
If we are honest, some kids are BEGGING for a no because they want an adult to be the adult.
It shows up in the way you speak to the kid who gets ignored, encourage the teenager who is hanging on by a thread, step in when a child is being raised by the internet, and model respect even when nobody else is.
Sometimes the future of a child changes because an adult decided to say no…
Be safe,
Trooper Ben
#HelpMore
Congratulations @BradKCTV5 for celebrating your 20th Anniversary at KCTV5. Thanks for bringing the class, professionalism, and journalistic integrity night after night! 🎉