Dear Annie: My recently divorced brother has a new girlfriend. He has been divorced for three months. She has introduced him to all of her friends and family. She was married 20 years and went through a bitter divorce and had several bad dating experiences from dating sites. She seems to be elated to find a nice guy like my brother. She seems to think he’s too good to be true and even did a background check on him.

Is it fair to ask teenagers to give up sports and parties to care for parents or other older relatives? That’s an important question these days, because so many now do. The Wall Street Journal reported on a 15-yearold high school kid, Leo Remis, who is helping his disabled mother.

The war between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip is the most morally clear conflict in modern history. It pits an actual terrorist group that just engaged in the worst massacre of Jews since the Holocaust against a democratic country that protects citizens Jewish, Muslim and Christian. It pits a monstrously evil tentacle of Iran -- handed control of the Gaza Strip by Israel in 2005, when Israel pulled out of that area and forced 8,000 Jews out of their homes -- against a democratic ally of the United States. It pits an army of atrocity-seeking villains -- who are attempting to maximize (SET ITAL)Palestinian(END ITAL) casualties by locating themselves among civilians, stealing humanitarian aid and literally murdering anyone who gets in their way -- against an actual professional army risking the lives of its own soldiers in order to protect (SET ITAL)Palestinian civilians.(END ITAL) And yet Joe Biden can’t quite make up his mind. On the one hand, Biden mouths platitudinous support for Israel in its battle against Hamas. On the other, he continues to grant the central premise Hamas promotes, which is that Israel is a human rights violator and indiscriminate killer of Palestinians -- even as Hamas holds Americans hostage in Gaza. Biden has spent the last several weeks pressuring Israel not to go into Rafah, the sole major repository of the Hamas terror apparatus, where some four brigades of terrorists are digging in. Instead, he has deployed his head of the CIA, his secretary of state and a wide variety of other officials to promote “negotiations” between Israel and Hamas.

A favorite quote from the recent campus conflicts comes from Adam Young, a freshman at the New School in New York. After student trespassers were arrested and hauled to police headquarters, he complained, 'This is not OK ... We're 18 years old.'

'This may be Biden's Vietnam.' Bernie Sanders' warning couldn't be starker. The campus protests that have raged for weeks feel like 1968 in miniature.

Annie Lane Dear Annie: I am a 48-year-old male living at home with my folks and older sister. We are a close-knit family and do things together often.

Dear Annie: I am also a parent of a child who lost his battle with addiction in 2022. There are so many of us with difficult stories to share.

Vol. (7) WILL KANSAS TAXPAYERS FINALLY GET THE DESERVED TAX CUTS? The Legislative session has come to an end for the year.

Like my garden, my mailbox is showing definite signs of spring. Just this week two beautifully addressed, thick envelopes showed up, both of them announcing graduation ceremonies -- one from high school, the other from college. However, neither even hinted at an invitation for me to give the commencement address. But had I been asked, I do have the world's shortest graduation speech ready to go: LADIES AND GENTLEMEN OF THE CLASS OF 2024, FACULTY, FRIENDS AND FAMILY: Today I would like to share with you seven things I wish I'd learned sooner. I cannot be sure that I would have paid attention, but there's a chance I might have. Now I offer you that same chance.

For thou art my lamp, O LORD: and the LORD will lighten my darkness. For by thee I have run through a troop: by my God have I leaped over a wall. As for God, his way is perfect; the word of the LORD is tried: he is a buckler to all them that trust in him. -- 2 Samuel 22:29-31