Water: The Underlying Infrastructure Crisis

The first things that come to mind at the word “infrastructure” are roads and bridges. But access to clean water is one of the most important infrastructural resources needed to sustain human life and develop large population centers. However, many voters don’t consider clean water access or other related environmental issues, with the exception of … Read more

Does Boston Have the Best Police? A Case Study in Police-Community Relations

In the past four years, Eric Garner, Michael Brown, Tamir Rice, and Freddie Gray have become household names after they were killed by police. Their deaths helped spark the Black Lives Matter movement and initiated a conversation about the relationships between police and communities of color—in particular, black communities. As other cities have seen major protests, Boston … Read more

The Junkie and the Addict: The Moral War on Drugs

In “The Odyssey,” Homer refers to a substance which “banishes all care, sorrow, and anger.” Here, he is likely speaking of opium, a substance with the same active ingredient as the modern-day heroin. It seems that from Homer’s time to modern day America, psychoactive substances have fascinated us throughout all of human history. Accordingly, different … Read more

The Walk-Ons

When Cage Reeder was accepted to Harvard, he knew his next step. He had played football throughout high school and hoped to continue participating in the game he loved. The fact that he had not been recruited for the Harvard team was not going to keep him from pursuing his passion. He contacted the coaches, … Read more

Frozen in the Desert: Western Sahara and the Forgotten Conflict

  On May 10, 1973, Sahrawi university students and soldiers from the Spanish army assembled in a small village-fort in northeast Mauritania to declare the Polisario Front. Ten days later, seven of these individuals began their campaign across the West African coast, attacking a Spanish outpost at El-Khanga. With this began the Western Sahara Conflict––the … Read more

President Trump’s First Speech to Congress

White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer announced earlier this week that President Donald Trump is scheduled to address a joint session of Congress next Wednesday. The HPR has acquired an advanced copy of his speech. Mr. Speaker, Vice President Pence, and Members of Congress: I am here tonight to report that the state of the … Read more

Understanding Aung San Suu Kyi’s Silence on the Rohingya

Over the past year, violence between the Burmese government and Rohingya Muslims has escalated due to the killing of nine police officers in Rakhine State, home to most of Myanmar’s one million Rohingya. Reprisals over the police assassinations have led state security forces into the region to search for the alleged Rohingya terrorists. However, since the … Read more

The Case Against the Electoral College

Given its over-200 year legacy, the Electoral College has been greatly distorted by the rose-colored lenses of history, its purposes and its creators’ intentions largely relegated to the background in the popular imagination. Though optimistic views of its origins have perpetuated its support, said origins are not as pure as proponents claim them to be. … Read more