Wise Monkey News is here to provide young people an opportunity to discuss the issues that affect their lives. We hope that, through your participation, this website serves as a forum for the development, exchange, and expression of ideas that will prepare us to assume our positions as the leaders of tomorrow's world. Have something to say?
All in a day's work
by: Nate Farley - printed on 03-06-2002
Tomorrow, I will shake hands with child molesters, pray with violent drug offenders and take Communion to murderers. After our Mass in the prison chapel, I will help the chaplains and volunteers take Communion to those who are unable to leave their cells for Mass—including those on Death Row.
I cannot pin down why I was first interested in doing prison ministry, but it had intrigued me for some time.
A win for Mr. Le Pen?
by: Mono Vergara - printed on 04-24-2002
It was certainly not expected that the FN (National Front) candidate Jean Marie Le Pen was going to get this result in the first round of elections in France.
Finding the Columbia River
by: Dr. Frank Fromherz - printed on 01-23-2002
"I've known rivers, ancient, dusky rivers, my soul has grown deep like the rivers." The great Harlem Renaissance poet Langston Hughes wrote these lines while aboard a train. He was on his way to Mexico to visit his dad. The poet, who had just finished high school, "grew deep like the rivers" as he crossed the Mississippi, and thought about a people whose memories stretched across the Nile, the Congo, and the Euphrates.
Foriegn policy goes fishing
by: Ryan O'Connor - printed on 04-25-2001
If ever the United States of America has needed a clear set of foreign policy objectives, it is now. As the world witnessed in Quebec last week, many citizens of the world are not sold on the benefits of free trade. Conversely, we also saw that most oft he Western Hemisphere’s political leaders are. In many respects, there seems to be little doubt than an integrated hemispheric (and eventually world) economy with few trade barriers will be the result of the increasing power and prevalence of multi-national corporations, non-governmental organizations, and inter-governmental organizations.
Uniting Eco-efforts
by: Kristina Koenig - printed on 02-20-2002
No college campus is perfect from the idealistic perspective of an environmentalist. Everyday, cans and paper are thrown away instead of recycled; paper products are used in excess; people rarely use double-sided printing; annual food waste from campus food services may be enough to feed some small 3rd world countries; faucets and showerheads leak and sidewalks are watered in a way that makes water seem like a endless resource; faulty heating systems create unnecessary wintertime saunas; lights and computers are left on 24 hrs/day; harsh cleaning chemicals and fertilizers are used and fed to our rivers; heavy machinery is used for building and landscaping; students drive across the street to school; non-native species are planted for aesthetic purposes ? the list could go on forever.
A unique student shares her global perspective
by: Christy Scheuer - printed on 01-23-2002
"What do you mean, 'crazy'" Asima laughs at my word choice, and then pelts me with questions about the incongruities of American diction and slang. "You say 'crazy' and it means so many different things. Also, 'slick.' What does that mean? None of these words mean the same here as they did in my English classes. Like 'cool' ? people don't use it to mean cold!" She looks at me inquisitively, automatically adjusting her cranberry colored headscarf, and then her face erupts into a smile.