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?
Be conscience of your future, the environment
by: Meghan Molenda - printed on 09-26-2001
Have you ever written a paper about a penny? Back in the days of Junior High school, my teacher gave us that assignment. One day in eighth grade Mr. Hoepner handed out old pennies to each person in the class and asked us to write about where that penny had been in its little penny life. All of this was to be done in three pages written in cursive and due in a week (how quickly those days go by!).
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.
Committment to Justice: A Lifestyle Choice
by: Ben Zimmerman - printed on 11-15-2000
Some of my buddies from back home got together last weekend. I wasn’t able to be there, so one of these old friends asked another, whom I currently live with, how I was doin’ and what I was up to. My housemate’s response included my plans to return to the School of the America’s protest in Georgia, my nagging efforts regarding recycling around the house and my general anti-“corporate America” attitude.
Do animals feel pain?
by: Peter Singer - printed on 11-07-2001
Excerpted from Animal Liberation, Peter Singer, 2nd
Edition, New York: Avon Books, 1990.
Do animals other than humans feel pain? How do we know? Well, how do we know if anyone, human or nonhuman, feels pain? We know that we ourselves can feel pain. We know this from the direct experience of pain that we have when, for instance, somebody presses a lighted cigarette against the back of our hand.
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.
The roots of war: Universities supporting the military-industrial complex
by: Mckenzie Miller and Evan Hughes - printed on 04-10-2002
The military industrial complex, the collaboration of the military and defense corporations, has from its conception pivoted on profiting from war. In the history of the arms race, the cold war stood as the initial justification for the weaponization of our society. With a sense of urgency and fear, universities across the nation were employed in the research and development of new technologies of war.