By the time the Nazis closed the border in 1939, terminating the program, 669 children, most of them Jewish, had been safely transported to England.

I also read a few days ago that the Legislature had overridden Gov. Le-Page’s veto of L.D. 1017 (the Maine Parentage Act) – the product of over a decade’s work by judges, lawyers, law professors and representatives of the Maine Department of Health and Human Services.

This proposal provides a method by which the parentage of children may be determined not just by the traditional methods such as birth during marriage and adoption, but also by determining de facto relationships, such as children whose parental figures are not their legal parents, and by the new artificial reproduction techniques.

Maine had no such statute. That void left the legal status of many children – innocents all – unresolved. This law will protect such children.

The governor’s veto jeopardized them. He rejected the proposal not because it would cost anything – it won’t. Rather, he rejected it because nothing – not parents, not children, not families – would stand between him and his budget.

It is ironic that the death of a protector of children should coincide with the governor’s act of indifference. I compare Nicholas Winton and Paul LePage: I see an altruist and a mercenary.

John Sheldon

Westbrook

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