"It's against the law, all right, and it's certainly bad, but when a man spends his relief checks on green whiskey his children have a way of crying from hunger pains. I don't know of any landowner around here who begrudges those children any game their father can hit."

               On page 41 of To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee, Atticus is explaining to Scout why the Ewells are allowed to hunt and trap illegally when the season's out. He says that if a man has a drinking problem and spends all of his money on alcohol, his children will starve. When Scout questions the situation and says, "Mr. Ewell shouldn't do that-" Atticus proceeds, asking her if she would rebuke Bob Ewell if he brought illegal food to his starving family. In this situation, Atticus is trying to describe a very fine line between law and morale. By law, stealing is a crime and those who commit this crime should be punished. But, if the robber was starving and stealing was his only means of survival, what would you do? Although the Ewells are malnourished because of Bob's poor choices as the head of a family- a reason that is caused by someone's choice- no one would purposely call out a man stealing for his family, just so they could eat enough to get by. At the same time, people like the Cunninghams, who are also poor, are very dignified and try to live as normal as possible. They might not be able to have as much food on the dinner table as everyone else, but they have no debts and don't scrape for meals illegally. 
               I think this quote can definitely be applied to our recent news. For example, people often try to cross borders. This act is illegal and is constantly being controlled. However, when the people crossing the borders are young, starving children, will you turn them away and send them back? Or will you sympathize and attempt to form a compromise? Events like this occur in the world more often than they should, and the government is faced with the question of what to do. In the book, obviously no one would keep the Ewells from having as much food as they could find, if it just meant hunting and trapping when the season was over. In that scenario, the answer seems quite simple- let the Ewells hunt whenever they can, so the family can eat a decent meal. In contrast, our world is more complex than the town in To Kill a Mockingbird, therefore its problems will have more complex outcomes. We have to put our trust in the authorities, and hope that they'll have the ability to initiate the most appropriate solution that won't tip both ends of the scale too far.