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?
Monologues Increase Awareness
by: Jamie Worley - printed on 09-25-2002
The Vagina Monologues. The first time I heard the title to this play, I had to suppress a giggle. I looked around at my classmates, trying to gauge how I should react, all the time rolling the word off my tongue. Vaaagggiiinnnaaa …
What Role does the U.S. play in the world?
by: Hank Smith - printed on 09-11-2002
I remember a conversation I once had with a fellow American and a Swede. We were discussing movies, and the Swede mentioned that his favorite film was from the United States - American Beauty. Another American I was with could not believe it.
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.
Binge drinking: The bridge to Alcoholism
by: Kelly Maggi - printed on 09-26-2001
I like to drink beer. I like the smell, taste, and texture of it; I like to go to bars and restaurants that serve it; and I like to be with friends when I drink it. I like to get a small buzz going sometimes. I am happy to say that this is the way I feel about beer, because I’m responsible when I drink it. I never get behind the wheel after drinking, I never drink alone, I drink in moderation, and there have been few instances in my life in which I have been drunk to the point of losing complete control of myself.
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.
El Salvador: Liberating the poor, liberating ecology
by: Jessica M. Jenkins - printed on 01-23-2002
Raul's family has no rice this year. As peasants in the northern mountains of El Salvador they live off the land, so when the land suffers so do they. In good years, they can eat corn, beans, rice, and vegetables, and have just enough left over to sell in order to purchase tools, clothing, medicine. The problem is that the good years have been few and far between as of late. Within the past ten years, both drought and hurricanes have struck Central America with extreme agricultural instability, bad for any farmer but devastating for subsistence growers like Raul.