COMMENCEMENT 2023
Meehan Asks LA Grads to “be on the Right Side of History…” by John Bishop
The speaker didn’t mince words. “Your generation will need to confront the climate crisis, our culture’s addiction to guns and the resulting gun violence, threats to our democracy and human rights, the ongoing cancer of racism, the rise of antisemitism, and the growing economic inequality,” said University of Massachusetts President Marty Meehan P’26 to the 115 graduates gathered on the Quad for Commencement on June 2, 2023. “You'll face many situations where you have to decide whose side to take, about whom to stand up for, about when to use your voice, and how to use your power and your privilege.” Building his argument, Meehan spoke about another member of the Lawrence Academy community who used his voice, power, and privilege for good: Amos A. Lawrence, a merchant, philanthropist, and abolitionist. Then, noting the many difficult decisions and stands his colleague in Congress, Sen. John McCain, needed to make over his career, Meehan recalled that the Arizona Republican said he worked to “be on the right side of history.”
To wit, Meehan echoed many lessons LA students garnered over the past year. In this school cycle, the words of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. continued to be a touchstone for Lawrence Academy. Citing a 1968 MLK speech in Washington, D.C., entitled “A Proper Sense of Priorities,” Meehan quoted Dr. King, saying:
There comes a time when one must take a position that is neither safe, nor politic, nor popular, but he must take it because conscience tells him it is right. Finally, noting longstanding traditions at Lawrence Academy and ways of thinking pioneered by abolitionist A. A. Lawrence, and recalling MLK and his friend John McCain, Meehan implored LA’s outgoing students, “When you are confronted with difficult moments — when what you choose to do will be remembered… — I ask that you adhere to the values you developed and honed here at Lawrence Academy and the tradition of Amos Lawrence, Martin Luther King, and Senator McCain. “I ask that you choose to be on the right side of history,” he concluded. FALL 2023 LAWRENCE ACADEMY 11
