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?
Nurturing our Bodies/Nurturing Mother Earth
by: Tim Crump - printed on 03-28-2001
My morning bicycle ride to the University of Portland is one of the few times in the day that I feel good, truly and deeply good, about what I am doing. In our lives, so many of our decisions and actions involve trade-offs. To keep the apartment warm we have to turn up the heat and burn more energy. To learn more about an important subject, we print out an article, using a few more sheets of paper.
Getting in touch with your world
by: Meghan Molenda - printed on 09-12-2001
It was 9:15 on Friday morning and I was on my way to logic. I was traveling by foot on one of the many cement pathways that lead the majority of us to our places of thought, learning, confusion, or whatever one would classify exactly how we spend our days on the bluff. Since I was getting closer and closer to being late for the first class of the day I decided to veer off from the normal flow of traffic and blaze a trail of my own through the freshly manicured grass that lies between Mago and Franz.
"Just some banter about trees"
by: Meghan Molenda - printed on 02-06-2002
I sat down and introduced myself as an inquisitive mind wondering about the other side of the story. Mere human knowledge, although it was abundant, was not enough for me to form an unbiased, educated view. No matter how many facts you have on a subject, you can?t make an educated decision if you ignore a valuable position. I wanted to know about the world from the viewpoint of a tree, and human knowledge just wouldn?t cut it.
Israel. Surely God is with us
by: Ryan Bemis - printed on 10-18-2000
In our safe little corner of the world, we may not be able to fathom the strange, chaotic, and hostile world in Israel and Palestine right now. How can it be that the Palestinians could reach such a violent rage and erupt through beating an Israeli soldier to death? Are these people crazy?
The situation resembles the state of unrest in India over a half a century ago when Gandhi worked for peace through non-violent tactics.
Committment to Justice: A Lifestyle Choice
by: Ben Zimmerman - printed on 11-15-2000
Some of my buddies from back home got together last weekend. I wasn’t able to be there, so one of these old friends asked another, whom I currently live with, how I was doin’ and what I was up to. My housemate’s response included my plans to return to the School of the America’s protest in Georgia, my nagging efforts regarding recycling around the house and my general anti-“corporate America” attitude.
Where did hope go?
by: Hank Smith - printed on 02-06-2002
"Okay. The story is about a little wave, bobbing along in the ocean, having a grand old time. He?s enjoying the wind and the fresh air ? until he notices the other waves in front of him, crashing against the shore.
"'My God, this is terrible,' the wave says 'Look what's going to happen to me!"
"Then along comes another wave. It sees the first wave, looking grim, and it says to him, 'Why do you look so sad?'
"The first wave says, 'You don't understand! We're all going to crash! All of us waves are going to be nothing! Isn?t it terrible?'
"The second wave says, 'No, you don't understand.