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?
Jose Bove fights the Mc-Domination of the world
by: Michael Driessen - printed on 02-28-2001
This past summer in France, a mustachioed, pipe-smoking sheep farmer held the French’s regard in the headlines of Le Monde, with the attention usually reserved for soccer heroes: his name was Jose Bove. In August of 1999, Jose led a group attack on the McDonald’s near his farm in the south of France. His trial, held this summer, drew a crowd of over 15,000 people, and Bove commanded a following of thousands more.
The Death Penalty is state sponsored murder
by: Kawai Washburn - printed on 03-06-2002
What is justice?
Stop and think about it for a second, because it's a difficult question to answer. Often, what may seem fair, right and just to one person is nothing of the sort to another person. What is the appropriate response to a crime? Indentured slave labor in barren wastelands has been tried. Solitary confinement in a sensory deprivation cell is another alternative. Then, of course, there is always the option of just killing the criminal.
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.
The Gift of Conscience: A Blessing and a Burden
by: Candace Cook - printed on 03-28-2001
When considering military service from a Christian perspective there is a tendency to dichotomize between pacifism or nonviolent resistance and military participation. In fact, Christianity has historically considered both positions licit at various times.
The Jewish people viewed fighting for a just cause as acceptable, and God would be with the people in the fight. The early church, from the death of Jesus until the advent of Constantine in 312 CE, was largely pacifist however, and martyrs like Maximillian of Theveste died because they refused to don the military garments of the legions.
Make Every Day Earth Day
by: Chris Sparks - printed on 04-11-2001
Simple Facts…
Some simple facts to keep in mind. Though already over 6 billion, the population of the Earth grows by 83 million people a year. 80 percent of the global population lives on under $2 a day. 20 percent of the world’s population lacks safe drinking water or adequate sanitation. The 20 richest countries in the world consume nearly 80 percent of the natural gas, 65 percent of the oil, and 50 percent of the coal produced each year.
Seeds of mass destruction in slow motion
by: Mono Vergara - printed on 11-07-2001
I was thinking about the hundred of miles that I have walked freely. I thought about people playing in the fields on a sunny evening. I thought about a Cambodian kid chasing his dog after they went fishing. But suddenly I heard an explosion; the innocent child?s life is over. As another seed of death explodes, another life is taken.
According to the Red Cross, 26,000 people are either killed or injured by Anti Personal [AP] land mines every year.