Boy Scout values for president
BEING AN assistant Scoutmaster, I cringed when I heard that a former Boy Scout leader from Norton was arrested in a child porn sting. The assumption that Scouts are trustworthy still holds such power that if one does wrong, you can guarantee what the story line will be.
"A former Boy Scout leader and coach already serving a 14-year prison sentence for possessing child pornography . . . " in Texas.
"Federal authorities have accused a Portland-area [Ore.] Boy Scout leader . . . ."
"A Bible camp counselor and a Boy Scout leader were among 125 people arrested nationwide in an Internet child pornography case . . . ."
And these were just some stories along those lines that have appeared in the last year, from Tallahassee to Buffalo. While such stories are sad in themselves, a little juxtaposition makes them more sobering. By primarily identifying someone as a Scout or a priest or a teacher, we assume a level of honesty in millions of people. Most of their names will never be known outside their communities -- unless they do wrong.
But what about leaders who are household names?
This latest alleged betrayal of a Scout's trust comes as the buzzards swirl around the rotting credibility of Attorney General Alberto Gonzales in the lawyer-firing scandal.
It also came after I attended a wonderful Eagle Scout ceremony in Arlington last weekend, celebrating the achievement of a young man named John Coglianese.
His Eagle project was the publishing of a historical walking trail guide for his town.
Here we were, a church full of adults celebrating a youth who lived up to the highest of values. But what values do our leaders show him?
The presidential race is on, and more than Iraq, more than healthcare, more than the wealth divide, more than race relations, more than anything, it is about time that the next leader of this country be someone to whom we really could hand over our children. You need not do any more than consider the John Coglianeses of our country, young men and women who are about 18 years old.
The only presidents they have known are those who trashed our trust. President Clinton, who took office when John and his cohorts were around 4, had an affair with an intern that would have resulted in the termination of any other CEO, high school principal, or newspaper editor. Before his credibility was done in by the facts, he wagged his finger at America and said, "I did not have sexual relations with that woman."
I wrote that he should have resigned. He finished his term, but his final months were feeble. He runs around the world now as a high priest on AIDS. But the scandal robbed him of the power to advance his agenda, when he had the power.
A lot of liberals and lefties foolishly downplay this because, in the rearview mirror of history they say, Clinton did not kill anyone with his lies. This is of course in reference to the next president, George W. Bush. His false statements on weapons of mass destruction hardly need an introduction at this point, with the toll of Iraqi civilians and US soldiers having crossed the 60,000 mark in the ongoing estimates of IraqBodyCount.org .
Thus far, most of the Democratic candidates for president are running either against Iraq or for health care. They are already starting to sound like a metronome, ticking off liberal policy statements in a heartbeat, while remaining a long way from displaying the heart of their convictions (and with Clinton's face featured prominently on the campaign website of his wife, Hillary ). Republican voters are currently confounded by the metamorphoses of their candidates, moderate last year, conservative last month and right winger today.
What none of them have yet to do is promise the John Coglianeses of America that they will live up to a Scout's oath. In 1997, Clinton told more than 30,000 Scouts at the National Jamboree, "Your whole nation is counting on you. We need you to remain focused on the strong values you're learning." In 2005, Bush told a similar Jamboree throng, "there is right and there is wrong, and we can know the difference."
Clinton and Bush are a 14-year, bipartisan failure in knowing what is right and wrong. The best thing that can come out of the 2008 election is a president who does.
Derrick Z. Jackson's e-mail address is jackson@globe.com. 
