The Power of a Kiss

Senator Orrin Hatch neutralizes opposition with a kiss

 

It happened in April, 2003, at a town meeting in St. George, Utah, hosted by Dixie College. Senator Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, was the principal speaker. All was going well. The senior Senator from Utah had the crowd eating out of his hand when Bob Curran, co-director of Help The Child Brides, asked Senator Hatch if he was aware that young girls 13 and 14 were being forced into marriages with older men in nearby Hildale, Utah and Colorado City, Arizona.

According to an article in the Deseret News, dated April 18, 2003, Hatch replied: "I wouldn’t throw accusations around unless you know they’re true. I’m not here to justify polygamy. All I can say is, I know people in Hildale who are polygamists who are very fine people. You come and show me evidence of children being abused there and I’ll get involved. Bring the evidence to me."

Sonja Blancke, a spunky grandma newly arrived in Utah, said she and her husband arrived late at the meeting. "Bob Curran had the floor trying to get Hatch to address the issues of polygamy. He [Hatch] was so rude to Bob that I thought I could simply not let him get away with that. It took me awhile to get the floor, but I finally stood up, addressed the Senator and let my questions fly. [The] confrontation was simply spontaneous. I asked if the reason that he did not enforce the laws against polygamy was the fear that it would bring national attention to the great state of Utah."

"I think he was so shocked that I was so assertive that he didn’t quite know how to handle me, and I would not give an inch. Some of Hatch’s supporters were screaming at me to shut up and sit down." Sonja yelled back, "No sir, you shut up and sit down, I have the floor."

When the meeting came to a close, Sonja decided she would walk up to the Senator and shake his hand, but still let him know she wasn’t going away. For her, the issue of spousal and child abuse was a sensitive subject. At age 18, a non Mormon, she had entered into an abusive marriage with a Mormon boy. For 13 years she endured extreme subjugation while being coerced into complying with all the Mormon rituals including a temple marriage. Finally she found the courage to leave. Building a new life was not easy, but she worked hard and advanced from a simple saleswoman to Assistant Vice President of Security Pacific National Bank in California. She is now retired.

Sonja elbowed past some men she assumed were Senator Hatch’s bodyguards. She introduced herself and said she appreciated the time he gave her, but she wanted him to know "who I am and that I was not going away, I am going to stay in your face ....."

The Senator suddenly reached out, grabbed Sonja, gave her a bear hug and kissed her on the cheek. Then he said, "I just love you!"

Sonja said, "I was somewhat stunned as it did not fit with what had just happened."

Years ago, when I was a young deputy sheriff, Buck Brady, an ambitious Captain, ran for county commissioner and was elected. Buck became a popular speaker in the Democratic Party. He had his eye on the governor’s seat but was stymied by allegations of corruption. One day, Buck confided to me that the mark of a good politician was the ability to walk up to an enemy, smile, shake his hand and wish him the best of luck, even though you hated his guts. Senator Hatch’s kiss on Sonja’s cheek indicates that the Senator is an accomplished politician. But the kiss did something else for Sonja, she became active in Help The Child Brides.

On August 11, 1998, Senator Hatch was interviewed by the Salt Lake Tribune, the subject - polygamy. A transcript can be found on the Internet.

The substance of the Senator’s response towards polygamy sounded to me like political double-talk. Sounding like a Senator he was opposed to polygamy and he supported the LDS Church ban against polygamy.

When asked: "What’s your view of polygamy? Do you think it’s strictly a religious belief?" He answered: "I have no way of knowing that. I have met some of our constituents who are polygamists. I found them to be – the ones I know – to be very nice people. Very hard-working, very dedicated, very sincere about their religion. But to make a long story short, where there are allegations of incest, rape, sexual violence, violence against women, abuse of children ... I don’t care what your religious belief is. I don’t care who you are. I don’t care what your status in society is. There’s no excuse for it. And the laws should be enforced against those types of things. Whether you’re a heterosexual, a polygamist, a homosexual, whatever."

Sounding like a lawyer, Hatch said, "I happen to feel that a legitimate argument can be made that Reynolds vs. United States was wrongly decided, and its progeny since. I think you can make a legitimate argument that it was wrongly decided. [Reynolds vs. United States was a supreme court decision that in essence, removed plural marriage from the realm of religion.]

Sounding like Orrin Hatch, the individual, I’m not sure how he feels about polygamy. But I suspect his thinking pretty well personifies the general thinking of most native Utahans. And what is that? Thin out the bad ones and leave the rest alone!

During Tom Green’s prosecution, the Tribune published a story about Governor Leavitt and his younger brother, David Leavitt, having polygamist ancestors. In the story, the Tribune quoted some well known fundamentalists which made it obvious to me that fundamentalists were behind the story. I personally felt that the story was in bad taste. It was clearly intended to embarrass the Leavitt family. A later story indicated that Senator Hatch also had polygamist ancestors on his family tree.

For a Utahan to have polygamist ancestors is no big deal. Probably one third of the natives of Utah are second or third generation polygamist offspring. Utah fundamentalists think that if you have polygamists ancestors you should automatically defend plural marriage to justify great grandpa, and if you don’t, they will try and shame you. Fundamentalists also think that because plural marriage was once the central tenet of the LDS Church, all Latter-day Saints should defend the practice. They do not accept the fact that the LDS Church is a living church with continuous revelation. Mormon fundamentalists, like Muslim fundamentalists, believe that their original doctrines should not be changed or tampered with.

A few days after Sonja’s confrontation with Senator Hatch, Vicky Prunty, a "career apostate" and director of Tapestry Against Polygamy, said she went to the office of Senator Hatch and attempted to make an appointment, hoping she could bring to the Senator’s attention facts of wife and child abuse in polygamy. After all, the Senator was quoted as saying, "...bring me the evidence and I will get involved." However, Vicky said she was put on hold for three months and was never able to meet with the affable Senator.