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 pace protester reflects
by: Casey Terry - printed on 09-11-2002
Had it been any other day, the ungodly hour at which I was awoken would have caused quite a riff between mother and me. Instead, it left us huddled close together, staring at the TV screen in shock and horror. Like most Americans, I cried for the devastating loss of life.
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.
Hope for natives...but can society's attitudes change?
by: Kathy Kenny - printed on 02-14-2001
“They’re different, just not the same as us. They aren’t capable of achieving our standards. They’re backwards alcoholics…”
These are some explanations given to me as to why Native Americans have so many poverty problems and face such stern racism throughout the country. Once a population between 6 to 20 million, the Native American people have been eliminated to only a population of 2.4 million, although they began the century with a population of only 200,000.
Following the sunset: A call to travel
by: Andrew Noethe - printed on 03-27-2002
I find myself living in a world of sunsets. Each day ends under the long shadows of an Indian sun that steadily stretches past majestic forts, palaces of former maharajas, ancient temples, and the sleepy desert hills of Western India. As the distant red sun falls behind the horizon, life comes to a halt, thus granting me a few precious moments to appreciate my life in India and the life I have left behind.
Are the two Koreas ready to shake hands?
by: Boo Yoo - printed on 10-18-2000
Korea is the only country that is divided into two different governments, economic systems, cultures, and militaries. It was portioned along the 38th parallel, with the Soviet Union occupying the north area and American troops occupying the south area ever since it was independent from Japan in 1945. The North and South fought a fierce war from 1950 to 1953 and have never singed a permanent peace treaty.
The U.S. flies solo in Iran
by: Casey O'Connor - printed on 02-06-2002
President Bush, in his recent State of the Union address, grouped Iran with Iraq and North Korea in what he termed an "axis of evil." He has since kept up his hard line rhetoric, stating that the three countries have been "put on notice." Putting Iran in the same category as Iraq and North Korea is seen by many in the international community as rather extreme and based on shaky evidence. European countries fear that such a confrontational stance toward Iran will be counter-productive and may inhibit recent moves toward liberalization and reform within the strategically significant Middle Eastern state.