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?
Living a life of nonviolence
by: Karen Shea - printed on 02-28-2001
Before he was brutally assassinated, Archbishop Oscar Romero of El Salvador said: “Peace is not the product of terror or fear. Peace is not the silence of cemeteries. Peace is not the silent result of violent repression. Peace is the generous, tranquil contribution of all to the good of all. Peace is dynamism. Peace is generosity. It is right and it is duty.”
It is in this spirit that I have dedicated myself to living a life of nonviolence.
American media gives soccer a red card
by: Jefferson Azevedo - printed on 04-24-2002
"Game's on midfield. João Marcos picks up the ball, makes a long pass to Roberto Carlos on the left. Roberto Carlos runs to the corner line, two defenders try to follow him, he crosses the ball over to the penalty line, Ronaldo picks it up, dribbles one, dribbles two, clears the view, heads up, he shoots? GOAALLL!!! On the far right on the net, indefensible for the goalie, completely out of reach.
Ancestral Voices: Rediscovering two cultures in ruins
by: Ben Muse - printed on 09-11-2002
In the thick, green jungle of the Peten region of northern Guatemala lies one of the great cities of the worldÂ’s memory; Tikal, once a bustling city with towering pyramids housing the bones of deified leaders and a burgeoning acropolis, sits half excavated form the decay of the jungle.
When life on the streets meets the yellowbrick road
by: Erin Goodling - printed on 02-27-2002
What began as a mild interest in the homeless issues of Portland (thanks to my morning bike commute past Dignity Village, Portland's tent city), soon became a logistical understanding of homeless youth services in Portland (thanks to a term paper for Br. Stabrowski's Urban Politics class at the University of Portland). Shortly thereafter, I found out that my friend, Scott, works at Yellow Brick Road, the street outreach component of Willamette Bridge Youth Services.
Nagasaki to Portland: the Hanford nuclear reservation connection
by: Isaac Vanderburg - printed on 03-28-2001
When I was young, I would make parachutes by connecting the four ends of a bandanna to a fishing weight using four pieces of red yarn. Somehow the unfolding corners and the perfect billow and the gravity of it all produced a phantasmagoria of wonder, so much so that I would bunch the whole thing together and dart it back into mid-air, just to see if it all happened again.
Today I imagine that if I had looked up as a boy and saw the parachute that Katsuji Yoshida saw, with its impeccable aerodynamics and noble descent, I would have been excited just as he was.
Have a Self-Centered Christmas!
by: Bill Dailey, C.S.C. - printed on 11-28-2001
From time to time, crotchety cultural cranks (such as the author of this piece) lament our culture’s self-centered values, our unwillingness, in politics or personal aspirations, to consider the common good. Indeed, recent articles in the pages of this venerable publication have lamented our collective apathy and self-absorption here at UP. Where are the leaders who will challenge us to ask not what can be done for us, but what we can do for others? Not me.