Maine Maritime Academy graduates were challenged to exhibit moral leadership and courage Saturday by Gen. Joseph F. Dunford Jr., chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
Before 265 graduates, Dunford recalled his own graduation from St. Michael’s College in Vermont, where his commencement speaker was U.S. Sen. Margaret Chase Smith of Maine. Dunford told the students that Smith risked her political career in 1950 when she delivered her “Declaration of Conscience” speech, decrying the tactics of Sen. Joseph McCarthy, the Wisconsin Republican who accused dozens of innocent people of being Communist sympathizers.
“Standing up for what’s not popular is the true measure of moral courage,” Dunford said.
The ceremony began with a moment of silence for the five MMA alumni who died when the cargo ship El Faro sank in the Caribbean during a hurricane last year and for junior David Breunig of Westbrook, who disappeared in Old Town earlier this year and whose body was recovered from the Penobscot River last month.
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