Walking With Your Eyes Open

On a trip to Central America several years ago, the group I was with was encouraged to be careful giving money to panhandlers and beggars.

A little background. For as dysfunctional as American society is becoming, there are places we are still as a Shangri-la. I remember leaving the terminal and being greeted, almost accosted, by children trying to sell what looked like origami from plants.

“Only a dollar,” still rings in my memory. One of our group shooed them away like stray dogs. That was my first visit. The culture shock was real.

On a following trip, the tour organizer, shall I s...