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?

A vision of peace

by: Hank Smith - printed on 03-27-2002

People who win the Nobel Prize for Peace are considered individuals of special talent and passion. They are seen as builders of a new world free of hate and war and murder. Books are written about them, television programs chronicle their lives, and their words are studied in classrooms throughout the world. These peacemakers, we think, are truly special people.

Yet do these Nobel laureates think of themselves as having more influence than other individuals? Do they see themselves as unique people with a special talent for peace building? The answer, gathered from their words, is a resounding no.

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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.

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The need for change in America's high schools

by: Ryan O'Connor - printed on 01-23-2002

A bull's eye has been strapped to the back of the public education system. Republicans, Democrats, the Christian-Right, Libertarians, rich, poor, black, red, white, brown, everyone has discovered to root of societies ills-today's high schools.

Most public schools today are in fact a microcosm of society: numerous factions competing for limited resources, with those with the loudest, strongest, most visible, supporters commandeering the spoils.

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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.

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New York Attack causes mixed emotions

by: Meighan Doherty - printed on 09-26-2001

Photographs capture moments in time unlike any other artistic medium. Throughout history there have been many images that have spoken volumes about memorable events from the past, such as photographs from the Great Depression, Watts, Columbine, and the Oklahoma City bombing.

The photographs from the recent attacks on America are no different from any other historical photographs in that the images one sees in those pictures will leave a lasting impression on us for years to come.

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Minority Nations in UK Don’t Need Unity

by: Chris Costello - printed on 11-15-2000

The United Kingdom’s principle island of Britain is composed of England, Scotland and Wales. Scotland, with a population of 5 million, and Wales, with roughly 2.7 million inhabitants, are known as the UK’s minority nations. Meanwhile, the mass majority of the UK resides in England, nearly 50 million. With such discrepancies in population, one ponders whether these minority nations can fully express themselves within the UK.

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