Stealing to save your kids?

The images of lawlessness in Haiti are disturbing. I watched today as video on CNN showed widespread looting after word hit the streets of a supply store with some food in it. Boys and men grappled over the merchandise as others ran to get their share.

I think its way too easy to sit back in our comfortable lives and remark on how terrible it is to have such lack of law. I have no doubt that if such a disaster hit anywhere in America, we would quickly see the same type of tactics as people try to provide for their families.

Especially once you have children looking to you for food, shelter and comfort, it becomes increasingly difficult to know how far you would go to provide for your kids.

I always wonder what I would do in such a situation. If my daughter needed medicine, water or food and the only way to get it was to steal it, what would I do? I like to think I wouldn’t steal such items from someone else. But I wouldn’t have the same hesitation about taking food that was just sitting on a store shelf when my family was in dire need.

It’s hard to know how you would respond in such a disaster and what personal moral codes you would violate to keep your family alive.

What do you think you would do to provide food, water and medicine for your family? Would you be willing to steal or kill for it?

Do you think morality changes when it comes to keeping your family alive in the midst of a disaster?