Addendum.

A friend's husband is a convert to Islam, and the few times we've been out together, he *always* gives alms to people who are panhandling.

(Conscientious almsgiving is something that I really, really respect about Islam, and his doing it makes me admire him a lot, too.)

I've been thinking of taking that practice up, and I almost gave to that one guy on the subway car the other week on my way to the doctor's appointment, but now I'm glad I didn't.

Since he started saying obviously mentally ill stuff to himself, who knows if he would have directed something towards me if I gave to him and singled myself out in the crowd, especially since he started muttering something about white people, if I'm not mistaken.