Boston Chain Of Events Comes To An End

I’ve been glued to my TV since Monday, following the Boston chain of events with desperation. I don’t live in Boston, but I’d planned to move there for college, so the recent circumstances have left me reeling in shock. I know I didn’t feel even a fraction of the pain that the Greater Boston area [...]

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The War Outside Our Door Keeps Raging On

I never thought a few months ago when I was writing about Newtown that I would be watching yet another tragedy unfold in front of me so soon. Earlier today, two explosions rocked the finish line of the Boston Marathon. Reports have varied about how many people were hurt or killed, but let’s just say [...]

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Questions of Age: When Can You Talk to Children About Serious Issues?

When is it too soon to talk to children about serious issues? Last week, my boss posed an interesting thought: when is his son the appropriate age to go to the Holocaust Museum here in DC? As a Potter fan, this question perplexed me; I was incredibly young when I read about the themes of [...]

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Steubenville Case Opens Rape Culture Discussion

Trigger Warning: Discussion of rape culture and sexual violence. At this point, nearly everyone knows what happened in Steubenville. A young girl, drunk at a party, was  raped by two boys while she was unconscious- and it was filmed. The boys have been sentenced to a minimum of one year in a juvenile detention facility, [...]

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Everyone’s a Hero in Their Own Way

Holy potatoes, wizard Batman! I feel like it’s been forever since I’ve been able to talk to you wonderful people. I have certainly missed you all! I have been busy both trying to fight my computer’s nargles, and working at The Ministry’s Department of Magical Transportation my clerking job. However, things have very much settled [...]

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What It Feels Like For A Girl (AKA The Blog I’ve Been Waiting To Write)

The list of commemorative months is long and- I’ll admit it- kind of amusing. There is, of course, National Novel Writing Month (November), which I’m sure most of you have heard of- but did you know that in the US, July is considered ‘National Hotdog Month’? And according to Wikipedia, September also celebrates a seemingly [...]

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Protect the Voting Rights Act

We live in a post-racial society. American voting laws are fair and non-discriminatory. Everybody is considered equal in the eyes of the law. Right? Wrong. This past Wednesday, the Supreme Court of the United States heard the oral arguments in the Shelby County v Holder case, which challenges the constitutionality of the preclearance requirements of [...]

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Ravenclaw Thoughts, Ted Talks

Education is incredibly precious. When my grandfather came home from WWII, he was adamant on going to college. He used his GI Bill, got his books, and excitedly went to all of his classes. Soon into the semester, my grandpa realized it wasn’t easy to transition from surviving war to surviving class- he was already [...]

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Show Us the Report: A College Chapter Story

  Oh, know the perils, read the signs, The warning history shows, For our Hogwarts is in danger From external, deadly foes And we must unite inside her Or we’ll crumble from within -The Sorting Hat, Order of the Phoenix   The past two weeks, my college’s HPA chapter has been tabling for signatures for [...]

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“Progress in Marriage Equality” 2.0

When I joined the HPA staff back in September, one of the first blogs I wrote was about my personal experience with marriage equality (you can read it here). I compared equality to a baby taking it’s first steps- excruciatingly slow. “It may take decades for it to reach it’s goal… But it will get [...]

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