By rich strack

katehep11@gmail.com

Let’s have some fun with some not-so-fun tough questions about situations in life that are common to many of us. This is not a test and the answer choices are all debatable. Just be honest and see how you would suddenly react to these events that no one would want to have happen to them.

I’ll use “wife” in reference to the first situation, but “husband” works, too.

You’re a passenger is a car that your wife is driving. Suddenly, she takes her eyes off the road and is unaware that the car in front of her has come to a complete stop to allow someone to enter the road from a store parking lot. She slams on the brake, sending the car swerving left and then right before it finally comes to stop inches from plowing into the car in front of you. What do you immediately say?

A. “Oh my God! You nearly got us killed!

B. You grab her hand, “That was close. Are you OK?”

C. “You’d better let me drive the rest of the way.”

Your daughter comes home from college and announces with tears that she’s pregnant. Your immediate response?

A. “How could you be so stupid! Who’s the idiot who did this to you?”

B. “Well, the only thing to do now is get an abortion.”

C. “Do you want to have the baby?”

Your best friend just told you he stole $10,000 from somebody’s bank account and he wants you to promise to keep it a secret.

A. “Absolutely. That’s what friends are for.”

B. “If you don’t turn yourself in, I’m calling the police.”

C. ”How could you do that? You’re not my friend anymore.”

At the dinner table your son tells you he’s gay and he would like for you to meet his boyfriend.

A. “Yes I would. Invite him to dinner for tomorrow night.”

B. “That’s a sin against God. You’re not welcomed in our home any more. Get out!”

C. How do you know you’re gay? Maybe we should take you to see somebody about this.”

You’re an EMT and you are a first responder to a bad car crash. There are two people inside critically injured. You are surprised to find that one is your wife and the other is a man you have been suspecting is the guy she’s been cheating on you with. The chances of saving your wife’s life are very slim compared to saving his life. You can only try to save one. What do you do?

A. Let him die, try to save her life.

B. Since he has the best chance, you try to save his life and let her die.

C. You walk away and let another EMT make the decision about who to save.

Someone offers you $50,000 to walk a large bag of drugs worth a half a million for 3 miles from one schoolyard to another. He tells you that he thinks the police may be watching him so that’s why he’s asking you to do it for him. He tells you that if you’re caught, you are looking at 20 years in prison.

A. That’s a lot of money. You will take the chance and deliver the bag.

B. No way. You walk away. You’re too afraid of getting caught.

C. You refuse him because you don’t want to help drug addicts get worse than they already are.

Your son is suspended from school for cursing out a teacher.

A. You ask him why he did it and tell him to forget about it.

B. You send him to his room and ground him for a week.

C. You go to the school to see the principal and stand up for your son’s decision to curse out the teacher.

You come upon a disabled vehicle on the side of the road with a man waving his arms at you in distress.

A. You call the police to tell them what you saw.

B. You pull over to see what you can do to help.

C. You keep on driving, thinking it might be a setup to rob you of your money.

You will think that the “right” answers to these moral dilemmas are whichever ones you choose because they fit into your code of beliefs. And yet, these situations presented to you in this column rather than in your world of reality allow you the time to consider the best answer because you don’t have to react immediately with your emotions.

The human conscience is challenged each and every day. A decision is made, but afterward, the mind revisits and reflects and we continue to ask ourselves, “Did I do the right thing?”

Rich Strack can be reached at katehep11@gmail.com.