You only strenghtened my point with this post. You admit that a starving person has other options, that there are food shelves and charities and such that help, even if it's limited. Also begging is not wrong if you must, and it's certainly not the same as stealing, so the person that CHOOSES to steal food does so with the knowledgge that it is wrong, starving or not. And trust me, as a single mom I knew the feeling of not being able to put food on the table for my son. Did I steal? Nope. I found another way. There's always another way that doesn't involve hurting someone to get what you need (or want).

As for the killing someone to protect yourself or your family, well that's not bad or wrong now, is it? That's something anyone would do in the same situation. It's called self defense or justified killing. Not wrong, not bad, not the same as whacking someone to get what they got whether you think you need it or not. If you were starving, would it be okay to kill someone for their sandwich? No, of course not. If it comes to kill or be killed though, we have a right to defend ourselves and it's not wrong or bad to do so.

Good try, but you'll have to come up with some other scenario to justify CHOOSING to do bad things to get what you 'need'. Life can get hard, and don't I know it, but I refuse to sell my soul to the devil. If I can't do it the right way, I'm not doing it! If it kills me, so be it. I'll go to my grave knowing I didn't compromise my morals or values. But again, to each their own. I judge nobody. I intentionally hurt nobody. I'm not perfect, I make bad decisions, and plenty of 'em apparently, but I NEVER blame life for making me do anything, good or bad. Just my two cents.

Well good for you that you have the strength to stand by your morals but not everyone is like you. Sometimes people who have a bad run of luck or who are stressed out simply can't cope. Desperate people do desperate things. I did quite a bit of traveling in the military and not all countries have "food banks" in place or have government support; so yes people will steal to feed their kids. You and I are lucky where we live; others are not so lucky. We recently had a flood here and people started fighting in stores over bottled water. Residents of High River were threatening to shoot the police. These were all good people but the flood (life) made them do bad things. Seriously what do you think will happen if some big tragedy hits a city? You think all these good people will join hands together and sing Kumbya? These good people will be the very ones that will riot, loot, and kill to survive.

I am not disagreeing with you that good people do bad things, especially in a time of crisis. What I disagree with is saying that life made them do it. They had/have a choice how to handle the situation. Streets flood, residents go berserk trying to get water, threaten police, mayhem ensues all because of the flood? Nah, all because those people chose to act like that, based on fear of the situation, stress and anger at not having bottled water on hand and being prepared beforehand. I'm sure there are residents who DIDN'T behave like that and they survived somehow, no? Choice of reactions to a bad situation is the only difference in all those good people.

We've seen a tragedy in a big city before, many times actually. 9/11 is the perfect example and fitting with the anniversary yesterday. In the days that followed, we saw people come together and help folks in anyway possible, and while not singing Kumbya (that was awesomely funny by the way...made me laugh...thanks!) they chose to handle the situation with faith, love, and understanding. There are many others that used the situation to steal, riot, loot and fraud the system in the aftermath to get ahead. Those people, good or bad, chose to behave badly following a terrible tragedy.

Life is life, sometimes it's kind, sometimes it's not, but it doesn't control our actions, we do! Not trying to say I'm better than anyone, or that good people don't do bad things. I've chosen to do bad things before...we're human, we make mistakes. I just take full responsibility for my actions. Life didn't make me do anything. That's all I'm saying.

edited to fix spelling mistake

I think life throws a lot of crap at us and one can only take so much that some people just can't take anymore. I can say; sometimes I feel it doesn't pay to be a good person as it seems the bad people get all the breaks. It simply doesn't pay to be good is what I am thinking lately; although I haven't done anything drastic yet. A911 was a horrific tragedy; but it was an isolated one. I am talking more on larger scale; like for instance a whole city tragedy. The flood here only affected 100,000 where as the 900,000 were unaffected. Or a meteor strikes the earth. I think if all of us were affected; it would be a different story. When it comes to fighting for survival; people will do what they need to survive at all costs. Tragedies are a part of life and that is why I say life can make good people do bad things. I guess we will have to agree to disagree.

First we should agree to agree on something.

I too have questioned my desire to do the right thing these days. I'm in a huge mess and it would be so easy to do the wrong thing to fix it. I see girls using men for money all the time. I see people steal and sell drugs and they're living high off the hog while I struggle just trying to exist the 'good' way. It DOES seem like the 'bad people' get ahead while 'good people' keep suffering. It's disheartening to say the least. I sympathize with your struggle to get through life without resorting to drastic measures, I feel the same way. Luckily my desire to not hurt others outweighs my desire to suffer less, but it's a daily battle with my conscience for sure!

Life IS hard, no doubt about that. I control my life though, it doesn't control me. On that point, we will have to agree to disagree!

A child born into the world with pure innocents, The destiny and attitude of that child will be determined by the surroundings,the parents, the generation, and the people that that child associates with through the early years of his/hers life. This will map the child's attitude, until such a time, after learning many lessons that person will adjust accordingly and form his/her own opinion of what is right or wrong, such is the nature of free choice.