A Little History Gives Scouts Some Big Ideas

YORBA LINDA —  Kent R. Martin was not yet born when Richard M. Nixon resigned the presidency.

The 12-year-old Boy Scout has never heard of Henry Kissinger, the White House tapes or Nixon’s secretary Rose Mary Woods. He thinks the Watergate break-in was uncovered by the Secret Service and that Carl Bernstein, the Washington Post reporter who helped uncover the scandal, is a politician. But Kent feels sure that “lying about Watergate was a major mistake. It wasn’t just like stealing a little thing of bubble gum.”

Kent lives half a block from Nixon’s birthplace. Though John F. Kennedy is his favorite President, he considers himself a Republican. And he wants to run for President--after he becomes mayor of Yorba Linda.

“I’d never seen Nixon before,” Kent confided Thursday after he and about 100 other Scouts paraded with the Stars and Stripes through the dedication ceremonies for the Richard M. Nixon Library and Birthplace. “I’ve never seen any President live before.”

Kent declared Ronald Reagan to be the funniest of the four Presidents, and George Bush to be “a neat guy.”

“I notice nobody mentioned Watergate,” he added. “I guess they were being polite.”

Kent was dressed for the heat in his khaki Boy Scout uniform of shorts and a military-style shirt with a white “God and Country” scarf he had earned for helping paint his church.

Politics aside, Kent said he liked the marching bands. And he was taken by Nixon’s boyhood tales of listening to trains pass through Yorba Linda and dreaming of travel to distant lands.

“It kind of inspired me--how he could have had all those dreams, and worked hard, and made them come true,” Kent said. “Kinda like Walt Disney!”

If Nixon wishes to secure his spot in history, however, he might prefer that the flag-bearing Boy and Girl Scouts not write the textbooks.

“I don’t know anything (about Nixon),” said Tyrell Moore, 15, of Anaheim. “I was just told that he was a crook.”

“I heard that he was a Republican and that he was a good President and that he helped a lot with slavery,” said Maggie Fisher, 10, of Placentia. “And the thing he did wrong was he lied to some people.

“When I was younger, I thought Richard Nixon was dead.”

“All I really know about Nixon was he was governor of California first, and that then he was President,” said Erin Duffy, 11, of Placentia, who was wearing a Girl Scout uniform including a bright green vest, skirt and blue bow at her neck. “He was going to be--what’s that word? That people didn’t want him to be President. . . He didn’t really do his best.”

“One thing I don’t think is fair about the Presidents is there aren’t any women Presidents,” Erin added. “There’s been 50 men Presidents, so I think they should get a woman to try it. Maybe when I get older. I think I would do a good job.”

Among other things, Erin said, she would try to stop drugs, “stop all the wars that are going on . . . and help all the poor people, try to find homes for them and try to help them start a new life instead of being on the streets.”

Kent Martin had an equally concrete plan of action.

“I want to be President, but probably first you should start small, like mayor,” he said. “Then, you should go for congressman. No, maybe governor.” As mayor of Yorba Linda, Kent said, he would begin mandatory curbside recycling and lure more stores to the area so shoppers would not squander so much gasoline.

“What America is doing right now is giving my generation problems, ‘cause we’re running out of resources,” he said.

Kent sees one obstacle to following in Nixon’s footsteps, however.

“I have a problem with organization,” he said. “Like in school, it comes out like I’ll do an assignment and I forget to turn it in. . . .

“I’m going to try more to think about my future. To become a President, I guess I’d really have to put my mind to it.”