No we didn't evolve from monkeys

A nasty guy I went to school with and with whom I am friends on Facebook posted something that included "If we are descended from monkeys, why are they still around?"  Well we are not descendants of the apes and monkeys living today.  We share a common anscestor with them.  We have been evolving on our own line evolution, and they have been evolving on their own cocurrent evolutionary path.  This may lead some to say this is where we ended up, and look where they ended up with an air of superiority.  Apes and monkeys are different from us, and have capabilities we don't have, and vice versa.  I think the big thing humans get hung up on is our speech capacity.  Movies and TV I think have furthered the notion that animals cannot talk like us due to mental deficiency.  I mean they always show talking animals with the same snout configuurations as what they do in real life.  Animals lack the physical capacity.  Our lips and mouth configuration is unique in the animal kingdom, it is what enables us to talk as we do.  I mean gorillas and chimpanzees are capable of learning sign language.  That would indicate mental capacity, but they cannot physically make the noises we can with our mouths.  My cat certainly is incapable of human speech, but he is quite effective in communicating to me that he wants his food.  He can also make a noise I can't,  he can purr, which incidently would be my wish from the genie.  As an asside (maybe this is out of date) we owe our tremendous brains and mental capacity to meat consumption.  Our ancestors made better use of tools to eat meat, which made our brains grow.  I have read that some cholesterol is actually needed for us because it is what fuels our thoughts.