Peter Dolan, statewide chair of Progressive Democrats of Massachusetts reminds us  

There is a high probability that on Thursday the legislature will vote on whether the proposed constitutional amendment that would eliminate marriage equality should appear on the November 2008 election ballot.

Mass Equality (one of our partner organization in Mass Alliance) has a tool on their website that allows you to find (State Rep & Senator] contact information if you don't already know it:

If you have already done this, or still have some time to devote to this issue, take a few minutes to review these maps on the Mass Equality website ... and contact people you know in districts where the legislator has not confirmed opposition to this proposed amendment to our state constitution.  Ask your friends and family members in those districts to call their legislators.

Let's do what can now to preserve this right for same-sex couples, and avoid a costly and needlessly divisive ballot campaign over the next year and a half.

Earlier this year, Gov. Patrick said:

"Above all, this is a question of conscience. Using the initiative process to give a minority fewer freedoms than the majority, and to inject the state into fundamentally private affairs, is a dangerous precedent, and an unworthy one for this Commonwealth. Never in the long history of our model Constitution have we used the initiative petition to restrict freedom. We ought not start now.  

"For practical reasons as well, its time to move on. Whatever ones views of marriage equality, all can agree that we have far more pressing issues before the Legislature and the Commonwealth. It serves no public interest to focus more time and attention on this issue when there are under-served and under-performing schools, an infrastructure showing signs of sustained neglect, gun and gang violence on the rise, jobs and people leaving the state, a growing homeless population, soaring health care costs, a looming deficit and a score of other serious challenges crying out for the attention and the creativity of the government and the people. We cannot in good conscience ask these unmet needs to wait while a few individuals try to insert discrimination into our Constitution.

And more recently, the Associated Press reports:

...on Saturday [Patrick, who] became the first sitting governor to march in Boston's gay pride parade, has warned of ``great passions and great fear and great intolerance'' among supporters of the amendment.

``All the (court) did was affirm an old principle that people come before their government as equals, that if the government is going to give marriage licenses to anyone, then they must give them to everybody, even if your choice of spouse is someone of the same gender,'' Patrick said.

A very few people hold in their hands an historic opportunity -- to end, perhaps forever, the division and hatred over this issue here in Massachusetts. Elected leaders so rarely get an opportunity such as this -- to ebody the tradition of John F. Kennedy's classic, Profiles in Courage -- and to decide to be on the right side of history when it matters most.

Only a handful of votes will decide whether Massachusetts goes the way of another season of hateful division led by the religious right.