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?

It's time to stop short sighted policies

by: Ryan O'Connor - printed on 04-11-2001

The environment has no checkbook. Polar bears cannot vote. The ozone is unable to write an incensed letter to the editor.

Given this it is remarkable that two of the three major presidential canidates in last fall’s election were considered friends of the environment. A stark change from any previous election—last year’s campaign featured discussion of the Kyoto Treaty on Global Warming, tax credits for polluters, the fate of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, and the horrible symptoms of our nations addiction to fossil fuels.

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September 11th in Austria

by: Jared Frye - printed on 09-11-2002

September 11th started out the same as any other Monday. I woke up and went to classes. I was still getting used to living in Salzburg, Austria - half a world away from where I was born. I was still adjusting to the language and culture.

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Americans packin' heat

by: Jason Talbot - printed on 04-24-2002

Dear Uncle Sam: I am writing in regards to the war being fought against terrorism. My wish is for you, the federal government, to let me help protect our country from other acts of hatred. The protection I need may only be secured through armament. For this reason, each and every American citizen should be sent a gun through the mail as soon as possible. That's right, the American public needs to pack some heat.

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Illness, coverup at Umatilla Chapter one of five: setting the stage-- workers fall ill and questions arise.

by: Jim McCandlish, J.D. - printed on 11-03-2000

Congratulations. You live 175 miles west of where 12% of our nation’s stockpile of chemical weaponry is stored at the Umatilla Chemical Depot near Hermiston in northeastern Oregon.

A deadly nerve gas called "sarin" (injuring 5500 and killing 12 in the 1995 Tokyo subway attack) and a blister agent called "mustard" (popularized by the Germans in WW I) are stored in an area known as "K Block"--89 earth-bermed igloos (also called "bunkers") in a geometric configuration worthy of thegarden at Versailles.

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In search for all the news that’s fit to print

by: Casey O'Connor - printed on 11-28-2001

I spent the first four months of my time in El Salvador reading the right wing Spanish language newspaper La Prensa Grafica. Shortly after the attacks of September 11th, however, my housemates and I decided to look for another, possibly more complete, version of the news, and so we ended up with the The New York Times on our table every morning. After my initial euphoria due to the presence of a credible English language periodical wore off, I realized that a significant portion of the news seemed to be missing from the paper that claims to publish “All the news that’s fit to print.

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Kenji-san ni shoten o atteru - A focus on Kenji

by: Teresa Abbene - printed on 04-11-2001

“The biggest difference between the U.S. and Japan is that Americans describe every single detail. I have a friend living in Japan who is from the U.S. and every time we talk he drives me crazy! He’ll ask me, How’s it going? And I’ll answer, Fine. OK. And he’ll ask again, How?”

Aside from Americans’ insistent focus on details and feelings, Kenji Ishikawa likes living in the U.S. Kenji is a 23-year-old senior majoring in sociology.

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