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?
Los jornaleros: Day labor on the San Francisco peninsula
by: Jessica Jenkins - printed on 03-27-2002
They cluster together on street corners in the early morning hours, intently watching the passing cars, looking for any sign of a potential employer. They are as young as 17 and as old as 52. Nearly all are from Mexico or Central America, and the vast majority of them have no legal immigration documents. They wait each morning, sometimes for hours, for the lucky job in gardening, construction, carpentry - basically anything they can get.
It's time to stop short sighted policies
by: Ryan O'Connor - printed on 04-11-2001
The environment has no checkbook. Polar bears cannot vote. The ozone is unable to write an incensed letter to the editor.
Given this it is remarkable that two of the three major presidential canidates in last fall’s election were considered friends of the environment. A stark change from any previous election—last year’s campaign featured discussion of the Kyoto Treaty on Global Warming, tax credits for polluters, the fate of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, and the horrible symptoms of our nations addiction to fossil fuels.
El Salvador: A Country of Beauty
by: Emilio Lopez - printed on 11-15-2000
Lying in the southwest corner of Central American, bordering Guatemala and Honduras, rests a country not commonly know by many people. It is a small hidden paradise about less than half the size of the State of Oregon. With a population of about 7 million people, El Salvador is the smallest and second most populated country in Central America.
Unfortunately, many of the few things people have ever heard about this country are related to war.
State of the Union: The Empire Rolls Back
by: Ryan O'Connor - printed on 02-06-2002
"Let?s roll."
President Bush, at the climax of his State of the Union address, tossed the nation his latest attempt at a national catchphrase. Somehow ?let?s roll? is supposed to become this nation?s mantra.
Tired of fighting evil terrorists and rogue nations? Sick of seeing our young men and women perishing while bombing and shooting other nations' futures? Let?s roll.
Let?s roll onward, toward our place in history.
Chain reactions will ripple the economy
by: Mono Vergara - printed on 09-26-2001
In a few minutes, hopes and dreams collapsed; with them, many years of prosperity and confidence were buried under the rubble. It was a decade in which foreign trade almost doubled, creation and development were increasing in an unstoppable manner, and the economy was lying with great comfort. Then, right after the attack many factories and shops closed, companies were forced to cut personnel, and consumer’s confidence suddenly crashed.
Catholic Ethics Necessitate Life Style Change
by: Isaac Vanderburg - printed on 12-07-2000
The Pope John Paul II warns “Modern society will find no solution to the ecological problem unless it takes a serious look at its life style”. However here on the bluff our ‘life style’ has been without such a look since the school’s founding in 1901. At the University of Portland, mountains of Pepsiâ cups are mined and leveled daily. The blue ore is filled then drained of fluid, eventually finding itself in a classroom trashcan with other Pilot waste that should be recycled.
