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?
When dealt death and tragedy: How do we play our hand?
by: Ryan O'Connor - printed on 10-24-2001
My brother has been in El Salvador since last June. A friend of his from Santa Clara University, where he is a junior, was one of the victims of the attacks on September 11. She died, valiantly so it seems, aboard the flight that went down in rural Pennsylvania.
She had volunteered with my brother once a week, for an entire year at a San Jose-area school, tutoring children. She was the girlfriend of his co-editor on the Santa Clara student newspaper.
Who is in charge?
by: Chris Graham - printed on 09-12-2001
At the center of the debate over stem cell research, the value of human life is being debated from both sides of the issue. On one hand, stem cells are believed to potentially have the ability to regenerate damaged organs and tissues which would prove extremely valuable in the fight against diseases such as Parkinson’s disease, Alzheimer’s, and diabetes. The opposition stems from the fact that these stem cells are taken from embryos grown in fertility clinics.
Umatilla: A call for Congressional investigation
by: Jim McCandlish, J.D. - printed on 04-25-2001
A recent lead editorial in the Oregonian calls for an independent investigation of chemical agent leaks at the Umatilla Chemical Depot. This follows the Oregonian’s lengthy commentary piece which found the Army’s explanation of the September 15, 1999 exposure incident to be misleading and inadequate. Over eight months ago, Rep. Peter DeFazio (D-Ore.) asked the U.S. Department of Defense to conduct such an investigation.
What Will You Do When You Graduate?
by: Ryan Bemis - printed on 11-15-2000
Right now, down in sunny Florida, two retired men are probably kickin it back and lovin the sun. They have more to celebrate than just the warm weather, however. Retired El Salvadoran generals Jose Guillermo Garcia and Carlos Eugenio Vedes Cassanova both were acquitted by a US federal jury on November 3 for being responsible for the brutal rapes and murders of four US Churchwomen in El Salvador in 1980.
Killing fields leave permanent scars
by: Jill Suart - printed on 02-14-2001
The pictures of emaciated faces and broken souls from the death camps in Nazi Europe are sadly familiar to most North Americans. And the history of Vietnam’s Communist takeover is still widely studied and discussed today. Yet there is a blank area in many of our minds where history is vague and images are few. That area is just east of Vietnam and two decades past the holocaust, at the Killing Fields of Cambodia.
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.