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Loving from afar

Dear Annie: I had my 14th birthday two weeks before I gave birth to my son. The hardest thing I have ever done was to sign the paper for him to be adopted. The entire time I was pregnant, I tried to think of any way I would be able to keep and raise my son. At 14, I completed my first semester in ninth grade but had to drop out my second semester. I cried and prayed each night for a way to keep my son, to be able to take care of him. For years, I would look into the faces of boys and then men to see if I recognized my son. I silently celebrated each birthday, and prayed he was OK and ...

Reducing mass shootings by recognizing red flags

Want to reduce the number of mass shootings in the United States? Then let’s ramp up efforts to stop domestic abuse. Just as a red flag is raised when a child tortures animals, often a precursor to later criminal behavior, there is plenty of evidence that mass shooters display red-flag behaviors, like aggression and violence against women and children, before they ever pick up a gun and start hunting fellow human beings. Oh, I know domestic abuse is a topic people don’t like to talk about. And when they do, they often conclude it’s a private matter or a “woman’s issue.” ...

Furry foes and floppy friends

Dear Annie: My friend Jess and I recently moved into a three-bedroom apartment together. We each have one cat. We knew it would be challenging to integrate the cats at first, but we figured that it wouldn’t be too difficult in such a spacious place. Boy were we wrong. Every night is fight night for these cats. I wake up several times a night to them body slamming each other, from the sound of it. I can’t tell if they’re fighting or just roughhouse playing, but it doesn’t sound good. I get out of bed to detach them; two hours later we repeat the whole scene. Jess and I have tried ...

Late bloomers show the strength of America

With all the attention the national debate between socialism and capitalism is getting, a new book has arrived on the scene that casts valuable perspective. The book is “Late Bloomers: The Power of Patience in a World Obsessed with Early Achievement,” written by Forbes Magazine publisher Rich Karlgaard. Karlgaard takes on the cult of youth that is capturing so much of our popular culture, particularly on the left. He reminds us in this important book that life is about learning, accumulation of wisdom, self-renewal and, in the best cases, prevailing against adversity. These are ...

Can’t find the right words

Dear Annie: My boyfriend’s mother was recently diagnosed with Alzheimer’s. It’s been really hard on him and his family. I’ve been trying to be there for him as best I can, but it seems like I’m always saying the wrong thing. The other day, he was talking about how difficult it is to think that there will eventually be a time when his mom can no longer remember his or his brothers’ names. I told him that was years down the road and to try not to think about it for now, to enjoy the quality time he can still spend with her. He snapped at me and told me he was allowed to think ...

This could be Melania Trump’s Barbara Bush moment

On Monday, first lady Melania Trump sat between stacks of large white cubes emblazoned with “BE BEST” and read a children’s book to the littles ones gathered around her for the 141st annual White House Easter Egg Roll. At each new page, she smiled and held it up for them to see. What a contrast to her husband, the president, who briefly sat at a table of coloring children and brayed about his imaginary wall to keep away children who are fleeing for their lives. “Oh, it’s happening; it’s being built,” he said with his face partially obscured by plastic eggs bobbing on ...