One of the things I discovered with the many stray and abandoned dogs in Greece, dogs that had once been someone's pet but were abandoned when that person returned home to Germany or England or wherever they came from, was that these dogs are not just starved for proper nutrition, grooming and medical care, they are also starving for affection. In fact, I found that many of them seemed to be more appreciative of someone willing to pat them and talk to them rather than just giving them a bite of food. 
    We are no different than those dogs in the sense that we all crave affection. We all like to know, need to know, that somebody cares about us. Cares for us not just as a statistic: another homeless person, another unemployed person, another person with AIDS, etc., but as an individual. 
    Fortunately, all of us, regardless of where we are on the road to spiritual enlightenment, are capable of giving affection. Unless your a sociopath, you are capable of showing others that you care, and we should do so. Some people thing that showing you care is a sign of weakness. Nothing could be farther from the truth. Showing affection for other people and for pets shows that you are strong. Also, caring is rather infectious in the sense that, when we show another person that we care about them, they will be more likely to show affection for someone as well. And if we ever really learn that we are all one and, when we are indifferent to others, we are only harming ourselves, we may recover.
    While I haven't done any studies into this, and I don't know of any having been done, I am still certain that, if you checked the background of people who commit the types of violent crimes that indicate a lack of sympathy and understanding for others, a lack of value for life, human or animal, you will almost always find someone who grew up in an environment where they received little affection, care or encouragement. 
    I understand that many parents have to work long hours and sometimes two jobs in today's economy in order to take care of there families, but you still need to find time to show them some affection, and not just by buying them things. Give them a hug. Tell them you love them. Do things with them, the things they want to do, not just what you want to do. Then maybe we will start seeing well adjusted children again who also care.  And don't just give a sandwich or some loose change to the homeless person.  Say hello, talk to him like an actual person, because he is.