As more GIs are killed and maimed for a cause that is nonexistent and in a country where they are not wanted, we begin to see the damaging effects of constant war on our national psyche. The increasing number of suicides among military personnel is symptomatic. Civilian society also exhibits war's corrosive effects. America is rapidly become a society of soulless, hyper-competitive, violent narcissists. A case in point is that of August Fox, a homeless black man who was minding his own business on a balmy night in Orlando. Unfortunately for Mr. Fox he was in the wrong place on March 26, 2007. A gang of teenagers beat him to death for no apparent reason, other than the psychotic pleasure of watching him die. His savage beating is not an isolated phenomenon. Violent and deadly attacks on the homeless are increasing around the country. A 2006 report by the National Coalition for the Homeless found 142 attacks last year against homeless persons, twenty of which resulted in death. The number of attacks is a 65% increase over those in 2005. In 1999, the year the Coalition started keeping statistics of the phenomenon, there were 60. The attacks occur in communities large and small and in forty four states. Attackers are overwhelmingly young, white males. Somehow they have gotten the message that its OK to beat and even kill "bums" as a sport. A few have even videotaped themselves in the act. These vicious juveniles have apparently internalized society's estimate that the poor are less human and can be considered an easy target for suppressed rage or racial hatred. In ancient Sparta one of the tests in the passage to manhood was that a warrior kill a slave with his bare hands. He had to kill without being caught in the act. Brutality as a means of character development is unacceptable in modern civilization. In 21st century America beating the homeless is a serious hate crime, perverse media notwithstanding.