Prejudice - prejudgment, judgment not based on facts - gets in the way of wisdom and understanding.

I have had a prejudice against Sen. Orrin Hatch of Utah. I thought of it as a bias, not a prejudice. You see, a bias IS based on fact - mostly on a person's prior actions (as perceived by the person with the bias). In Hatch's case I justified my bias because

1. He is a Mormon. (Most) Mormons grudgingly gave up one of their prejudices against blacks not long ago. Because of the black skin curse, blacks could not be priests and could not worship in Mormon temples. You see, the Head Frog of the Mormon church had a revelation. God told him it was OK for blacks to be priests in the The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Cynic that I am, I think the real revelation was that the Mormons' bans - the Mormons' prejudice - was interfering with world-wide recruiting efforts.
   
   Nevertheless, since Hatch seems sincere in his Mormon beliefs, I have assumed that he, too, grudgingly gave up (at least publicly) one (or more) of his prejudices against blacks.
2. Politically speaking, Hatch is an über-conservative. Such people tend to long for the good old days ... meaning in part, "when the n#**ers knew their place."

So - I have always been suspicious of Sen. Hatch's smile and pretty words. I assumed the worst of what I perceived to be his white supremacy values. And since white supremacy tends to also be anti-Semitic ... you see where I'm going with this: I have long held prejudices against Sen. Hatch and what I thought were his prejudices.

Several years ago Hatch and a writer for the New York Times were talking. Hatch mentioned that he wrote love songs. The writer challenged him to write a Hanukkah song. Nine years later - somewhat out of the blue - Hatch presented his Hanukkah song lyrics to the Times' writer, Jeffery Goldberg.

Goldberg ran with it. He lined up a composer to set music to Sen. Hatch's lyrics. Once it was all polished, there was a real recording in a real studio. Among the singers in the recording are several Jews (duh....), an Arab(!), and a high-profile Mormon (guess who).

For your listening pleasure, the result is a song that is "happy and peppy and bursting with love." Click here for 2 minutes, 16 seconds of joy . I love it, my mother would have loved it, my father would have given a wry smile of appreciation. My brother, always the ecumenical, will probably start singing it.

To quote Johnny Cash and Shel Silverstein (from A Boy Named Sue), "I came away with a different point of view."

Still, Orrin Hatch has a rather pathetic voting record. He voted:

• for all anti-choice legislation
• against the Lilly Ledbetter fair pay legislation (re: when women are paid less than men for the same job)
• against extending unemployment benefits
• against hate crime legislation

And now (finally) black men, like all white Mormon men and boys over the age of twelve, are a part of the Mormon priesthood.

Women of any color - not even women not cursed by having black skin - are not allowed into the good ol' boys club. But they can still bake cookies.

Letting go of prejudice is very liberating. Sen. Hatch, I apologize for my (thus-far) boorish attitudes and words. Are we cool with this?

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