In Cedar Park, the kids might not be as alright as one would suspect. The suburban town was disturbed on Sept. 3 when a 19-year-old boy with a mental disability was viciously attacked in a local park by a group of five young men (ages ranging from juveniles to 21). An arrest affidavit explains how the victim was beaten, written on and burned.

Soon after, the assailants choked the victim until he passed out, and urinated on his unconscious body.

    In a world where obscene violence is so commonplace, what becomes the most uncanny tragedy: the fact that young individuals could actually do this to each other, or that society is becoming less and less shocked when they do?

    When writer Truman Capote strolled into the tiny Kansas town of Holcomb researching the then-recent Clutter murders, the community was in a state of disillusion. What happened in 1959 was an alien travesty, but to us it’s just another week, another episode of “CSI: Miami.” The public’s exposure to violence is omnipresent, yet television merely mirrors the state of the world, portraying a scripted scene of modern day. Essentially, society has become numb to these kinds of brutal crimes.

    Why the youth has become so prone to violence probably has a number of reasons, from peer pressure to an utter disregard for authority. However, the root of all the hysterics seems to be an inability to accept differences. The educating of  youth on the importance of diversity in culture should be more present in classrooms and living rooms.

The civil rights movement of the 1960s was fueled by youthful perseverance. As of late, revolts (at least in America) have become more mindless, rotten with nihilism, than revolutionary. Compared to the riots of the underclass in Britain and the revolts of the disposed in the Middle East, one must wonder what we are fighting each other for.    

    If convicted of the third degree felony of injury to a disabled person, the assailants from Cedar Park could face two to 20 years in prison. If those convicted get anywhere near the minimum sentence, there will probably be public outrage, and the maximum might feel like blunt force trauma. However, in light of the general indifference of many and to protect the rights of the disabled, a bit of tough love may be necessary to prove that senseless hate is wrong.

    If a census of young adults who have used the phrase “that’s retarded” was taken, the findings would be immense. The phrase has become such a nonchalant slip of the tongue that it largely goes unnoticed. When a person uses that phrase, they promote the actions of the attackers in Cedar Park. The sad reality is that no one realizes what they are doing when they say it. The grim spectacle of violence in youth culture is so crystal clear that we can’t even see it.