Feed the Lions or you might be labeled a nazi

I was stopped at the light at Ashlan and Cedar in the left turn lane turning left onto Ashlan this morning and there was a homeless man standing in the center divider. He was holding a sign which I was unable to read and he had a lion stuffed animal on the ground next to him. I was the second car back and he approached the first car and said something to him while motioning towards the stuffed lion. The man in the vehicle in front of me appeared not to react and the man started walking to my door.

The man approaches my window and I can't hear understand him at first because he is mumbling and I am trying to pretend I don't see him. I really hate ignoring people like this because I got yelled at by a homeless dude once for doing this and I felt really bad. The previous homeless guy went off on how he was a person too just like me and didn't deserve to be ignored. Ever since then I try to at least acknowledge these individuals because the homeless dude had a good point. The only time I don't do this though is if I feel the individual is unstable, which was the impression I was getting from him.

So he is standing less than a foot from my window and I can see him in the corner of my eye raise one arm up in the air while he is holding his other arm in a fist to his chest. He then shouts "My lion is hungry, can you spare some money so I can feed him!?". To be honest, I chuckled inside. This was certainly a new way to ask for money. But I continued to look straight ahead because he is now inches from my window and acting very bizarrely. He shouts the request again and I am really uncomfortable now so I turn to him and shake my head and mouth "sorry". Thats when things got interesting.

He then picks up the lion and puts it up to the window and says "I just wanted to feed my lion, you nazi". He doesn't sound particularly angry when he is saying this, it was more like he was making a statement, much like you would say "these pretzels are making me thirsty". Perhaps the lion was Jewish, I really don't know why not giving money to a stuffed lion makes you a nazi and didn't stick around to find out. The light turned green at about the same time and I drove off.

So I guess the moral of the story is, feed the lion or you risk being called a nazi and we should have better mental health treatment for the homeless.