There is no reason to criticize Barbara DuBois' suggestion of more systematic kindness to our neighbors.  But if Mr. Musser, a white man who owned his own home, deserved kindness because of his growing social isolation and deteriorating mental condition, what are we to say about the hundreds of homeless who appear every day on our sidewalks and streetcorners?  The majority of those people are also socially isolated and suffer from mental and emotional disorders.  Nearly all of them are uprooted from family.  They are exposed to the constant physical insecurity of life on the street.  For them, Anchorage offers institutional care--shelters, cafes, and for hopeless inebriates, a lodging program.  Those things are needed, but they don't deliver the sort of care Ms. DuBois is talking about.  The simple fact is: we know how to help people who are like us--next door neighbors we might check on.  We have no idea how to help people whose way of life diverges too much from our own.