In Which I am Ashamed of Myself

There is a homeless mentally disturbed person who lives on campus.  This is reasonable enough, I suppose, there isn't really anyplace else for him to go, but frankly I find him a little creepy and try to avoid him.  He doesn't wear pants, screams on a regular schedule (about every 6 hours, almost exactly), and stares while making creepy grunting noises when I walk past.  This isn't exactly unusual, every community has its mentally disturbed person, and while I have known of one to start throwing knives in the marketplace, the worst that I have ever experienced is annoyance with possibly some thrown fruit.

Then the other day I noticed that the man I find extremely creepy was playing with a bunch of little kids.  He was smiling, they were smiling and laughing, all seemed good.  I feel like a really bad person for finding him incredibly creepy when kids feel comfortable playing with him.

Actually, most people here are kind to their homeless mentally disturbed people, they will give such people food and egg on their antics and seem to find them a source of entertainment.  This may not be the best response, but it does beat the US response, which is largely to keep such people deeply hidden.  The one time I did encounter a clearly disturbed person in public (in a parking lot, running around spitting on people), the police were summoned with much talk of how this person was a loose cannon who was really dangerous, which at the time seemed quite reasonable to me.  We have a narrative of the dangerous lunatic, which isn't really supported by facts, but it's pervasive, and I've bought into it.  I should stop that.