While Southport voters have already held their town meeting, the three other peninsula towns - Boothbay, Boothbay Harbor, and Edgecomb - have theirs coming right up. Boothbay Harbor taxpayers will gather on Saturday, May 3, Boothbay residents on Monday evening, May 5, and Edgecomb on Saturday, May 17.

Our advice: Be There! The growing sentiment to abandon town meeting in favor of ballot voting is, we feel, a sad day for a longstanding Maine tradition which should be preserved. Call us old-fashioned, but stepping into a voting booth to determine issues of great importance just doesn't quite do it for us. We much prefer seeing taxpayers gathered together to share their thoughts, pro and con. At town meeting, everyone has a chance to express his or her opinion (which isn't to say some couldn't practice a little brevity!). While telling your favorite selectman how you feel about a certain issue is important, and we should do it more often, it's still not quite the same as expressing your own views in front of your friends and neighbors.

We were really disappointed when Boothbay voters opted to go the voting booth route and abandon town meeting, and were likewise elated when they decided they'd like their town meeting back We hope they pack the meeting hall this year, and give themselves a big pat on the back for deciding that town meeting is one of the things in Maine's past that we shouldn't lose.

If you live in one of our peninsula towns, be thankful you still have an annual town meeting. Even more importantly, take the time to be there and to make your vote count. Appreciate the fact that you live in a democracy and in a community where you still can be heard, and your opinion matters. It's so much better than simply making a checkmark in a voting booth.