The Lone Ranger

Like many of my age peers, I grew up watching reruns of The Lone Ranger on television.  I never thought about why he was the Lone Ranger, or how he and Tonto came to be a duo.

Last week, I had the opportunity to watch the movie that launched the Lone Ranger series.  It turns out the Lone Ranger was one of six Texas Rangers on the trail of a criminal gang.  They were ambushed.  The criminals thought they had killed all six rangers, but the Lone Ranger survived.  He managed to crawl to a spring in a cave, and that is where Tonto found him and nursed him back to health.

There is a back story with Tonto as well.  When Tonto was a boy, a rival tribe had raided his village, and he was the only survivor.  The Lone Ranger had nursed Tonto back to health, and Tonto had given his ring to the Lone Ranger.  Tonto saw that ring on a chain around the Lone Ranger's neck when he found him in the canyon.

As the movie progresses, the Lone Ranger saves a wild horse, nurses him back to health and names him Silver.  Tonto was already riding Scout when he found the Lone Ranger.

There were so many great messages in the movie.  In one scene, after the Lone Ranger tells Tonto that he is going to become a crime fighter with a secret identity.  Tonto asks will he kill the bad guys.  The Lone Ranger says no, that he will capture them and bring them in so that they can face a trial and a jury.  He is interested in justice, not in being a vigilante.

The Lone Ranger just happens to own a silver mine, so is easily able to self-finance his crime fighting career.  He also decides to use only silver bullets, because bullets can kill, and life is precious.  So using a precious metal for his bullets made sure he was always aware of how careful he should be with his shots.

The Lone Ranger sure was good at shooting the gun out of the bad guy's hand.

I know that it is really difficult to shoot a gun out of someone's hand, and I know that not shooting to kill could end up with the good guy getting shot by the bad guy.  Doesn't change the fact I wish I lived in a world with a moral code more like the one in the Lone Ranger movie than the world I actually live in.

I know I am somewhere between naive and bat-shit crazy on this, but I really believe that we need more messaging like the Lone Ranger.

What is wrong with having heroes who are good?  Why shouldn't ideas like justice be celebrated?  I understand that there was some terrible stereotyping in the Lone Ranger, and that making Tonto speak English poorly was very insulting to him and to the Native American community.

But, Tonto was super smart, and good, and talented.  He regularly got the best of the "white man" who treated him like he was a lesser being.  Tonto was always the winner in those contests; smarter, faster, braver and innately good.

I don't watch much television, and when I do watch, it is typically sports, HGTV, or old movies.  So I really don't know if there are shows on television today that celebrate dedication to making the world better the way the Lone Ranger did.

But just like written fiction can show us worlds we know nothing about, television and movie fiction can portray better worlds for us to aspire to.

There are still people who spend every day trying in their own way to make the world a better place.  Their fight might not make for good television.  The movie might put everyone to sleep.  But in my heart I know there are ways to tell stories of good people doing good things that are engaging and entertaining and would sell.

I hope my stories and books are like that.  The first step in making a better world is imagining one.  That is what fiction does for us.  And the Lone Ranger painted that better world very well indeed.