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.

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Nuclear proliferation and the threat of nuclear war

by: Peter Andrews - printed on 03-06-2002

Since the end of the Cold War, the US has continued develop its nuclear weapons program. The funding for these programs stands at 5 billion and is scheduled to increase by one billion over the next three years. The funds will be used to refurbish existing weapons, rebuild facilities used to manufacture nuclear warheads and to step up our readiness to again conduct underground testing in Nevada. America's nuclear forces have played an important role in the military’s strategy since the end of World War II and the threat of nuclear war has acted to deter major conflicts over the last half century.

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Debunking the feminist myth

by: Christy Scheuer - printed on 09-25-2002

Feminism. Oh, the difference a word can make! The word feminism is fraught with negative implications, obscured by layers of stereotypes. Many people hesitate to call themselves feminists for fear of others’ scorn and derision.

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Recognize the beauty that surrounds you

by: Meghan Molenda - printed on 11-07-2001

We are all Oregonians at the moment. I realize that this may not seem to be the case for many of us, myself included, because many University of Portland students are from out of the state, or out of the country. Right now, however, we all have something in common, no matter where we are from or where we might be heading: we are here on the west coast in one of the most beautiful cities in the country, Portland, Oregon.

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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.

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Aisai bento

by: Yuri Nakamoto - printed on 04-11-2001

I’ve noticed that Americans misuse the Japanese word “bento”. My roommate thought bento was something over rice. You thought so, too? The Commons once served something called “bento chicken”! It actually looked like teriyaki chicken though. Bento is a boxed meal that some times it even includes dessert. Just like your lunch sack. But bento is not just leftovers. Maybe some of the items in your bento are leftovers, but bento is made for the purpose of taking your meal with you.

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