Salem News: Moulton to Graduates, 'We need you'
Congressman says it will soon be their turn to get involved in issues shaping the country
By: Paul Leighton, Staff Writer
SALEM — This week, Seth Moulton found himself at the center of the national debate on gun control in the wake of the mass shooting in Orlando.
On Friday night, the Salem congressman told graduates of Salem Academy Charter School that it will soon be their turn to get involved in the issues that will shape the future of the country.
“We’re going to be counting on you tomorrow,” said Moulton, the guest speaker at the graduation ceremonies held at the Salem Waterfront Hotel. “Register to vote. Take part in our democracy. Be part of our future. We need you.”
A total of 42 students graduated from Salem Academy, a grade 6-12 public charter school at Shetland Park that has grown from 88 to 420 students since it opened in 2004.
Moulton, the first-term Democratic congressman, told the students about the “interesting week” he had just experienced. After the Orlando tragedy, the former Marine captain tweeted a picture of himself in uniform holding a military assault rifle. “I know assault rifles,” the tweet said. “I carried one in Iraq. They have no place on America’s streets. #Orlando.”
That tweet was re-tweeted 14,500 times and the picture ended up on the front page of the New York Daily News.
Moulton told the graduates to measure their success by how they act during difficult times. He said he lost his very first election — for class treasurer at Marblehead Middle School. Later, he was urged not to run, and then to drop out, of his race for Congress.
“Six months into the race we commissioned a poll that had us losing by ‘only’ 53 percent,” he said. “My pollster told me the best thing I could do was to quit. He said, ‘It’s statistically impossible to win this race, Seth.’”
When people ask him what’s missing in Congress, Moulton said, it’s not intelligence, but “courage.”
“It’s the willingness to vote for what’s right when the politics are against you,” he said. “If you can find courage in your life, you’ll be able to beat those dark nights, those tough days.”
Valedictorian Jack Emerling, noting it wasn’t easy to follow “the rising star of the Democratic party,” sounded a similar theme in his speech.
“Life isn’t a walk in the park, and I really I don’t want us to have painless, easy lives,” said Emerling, who is also pursuing a military career as a member of the Army ROTC. “I hope that we all go through tough times and come out of them stronger.”
Evan Aroko, who was selected by his fellow graduates to be the student speaker, said it’s time for them to become the heroes he has always admired in the movies.
“Heroes who risk their lives and reach out into the dangers of this world, to save those in need, because today during this age this world needs heroes,” Aroko said. “Now more than ever.”
Full article here.