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?
"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.
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.
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.
A one year old monkey, Happy Birthday
by: Mono Vergara - printed on 10-24-2001
After a year of publication, I can step back and look at the 13 issues that we have successfully completed. Part of our mission has been accomplished; we brought a new forum for people to talk about the issues that affect their lives. During this period we all have learned that The Wise Monkey is needed more than ever. Today the world is facing the atrocities of war, and after thousands of years we still don’t seem to understand that war accomplishes nothing.
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.
‘That’s the thing about Christmas in Ghana’
by: Isaac Vanderburg - printed on 01-31-2001
It is an organic story, really. In 1969 two Peace Corps volunteers went to Ghana, West Africa. They taught English to the Twi-speaking children of villages called Aducrom and Laarte. They ate fufu and banku and redred and nkatiekwein. They did all the things that volunteers do: teach, travel, work, wander, laugh and cry. Of course, they couldn’t help but to love the kids they taught, love the work they did, and love most of Ghana in general.