Dear Friends and Neighbors,

By now you know Maine voted yesterday to eliminate the law that had given our family only last May the same legal rights and protections marriage automatically confers on other couples and their children. 

 It was difficult news for all of us to wake to yesterday morning, particularly for the children.  But we were able to get through the day, and we'll get through today, tomorrow, and the next day, thanks to you.  You stood with us to win the fight in SoBo, and that means the world to Anna, our kids, and me.  We may have lost the statewide fight, but our hometown decisively rejected Proposition 1, 56% to 44%, a margin of 12 percentage points.  Our gratitude to you for helping secure a local victory buoys us against any despair we might otherwise feel about the state vote.

 Anna reminded me this morning of an Eleanor Roosevelt quote that is so befitting today:

Where, after all, do universal human rights begin?  In small places, close to home--so close and so small that they cannot be seen on any maps of the world.  Yet they are the world of the individual person; the neighborhood he lives in; the school or college he attends; the factory, farm, or office where he works.  Such are the places where every man, woman, and child seeks equal justice, equal opportunity, equal dignity without discrimination.  Unless these rights have meaning there, they have little meaning anywhere.  Without concerted citizen action to uphold them close to home,we shall look in vain for progress in the larger world.

Tuesday's vote was disappointing, but it has also reminded us how much we have to be proud of and grateful for in South Berwick.  Thank you for all you do to make our town such a safe, loving place for all families. Where, after all, do universal human rights begin?

With deepest gratitude,

Vicki Boyd and family