Wow! I’m not much of a political buff, but anyone must see how impressive it was for Maine’s incumbent Senate and House candidates to win back their seats by such impressive margins.

Tom Allen, who spent nearly no money on TV ads won 60 percent of the vote. Michael Michaud won with 70 percent and Olympia Snowe won with 74 percent of the vote.

How in the heck do you argue with those figures?

But really they had nothing on the votes from the towns of Lyman and Waterboro, where contests were won by well over 80 to 90 percent of the vote.

Those two small towns in York County had perhaps the biggest winning margins of any race in the state.

The questions on those ballots read something like this: “Should we as a community limit a sex offender’s right to live within 1,000 to 2,000 feet of a school or day care or other place children should congregate?”

Who exactly is voting no on that one?

Let me ask you this. Fifty years ago in a southern Alabama town, if residents had decided to ask “should we allow blacks to live within 1,000 feet of a school?” how do you suppose that vote would have turned out?

Don’t get me wrong for one minute. I’m not in any way comparing blacks to sex offenders. But it gets me a little nervous when we have our towns voting on things that at the very least should be studied and legislated through our state, if not national, governments.

What happened in these two small southern Maine towns has happened in other towns and state legislatures throughout the country. All of those decisions will be challenged legally at the U.S. Supreme Court regarding issues of constitutionality.

Most towns and cities that have tried to uphold this ban find that 95 percent of their housing is off limits to anyone convicted of a sex offense.

I’m not a fan of sex offenders. I’ve written about them for years, and I know there is a high recidivism rate. The towns of Lyman and Waterboro may think that they are pressing the bar and forcing action. They are not.

The truth to sexual abuse lies in an ongoing understanding of the problem, a willingness of the state to deal truthfully with that problem, and a parent’s understanding that your own child’s sexual abuse may very well come from your favorite uncle who happens to be a pervert.

It is not a matter of where these folks live. It’s where they spend their days and who they spend their days with.

This is not a case to be won. This is an issue to be won, and our generation, which is probably the first to open up about it, has a great opportunity. Never, ever, ever should any child of mine or yours think being sexually molested is something to be ashamed of. Only when they feel free to discuss these incidents with their parents or other adults in their lives can we be sure we are protecting them from predators.