Who was that masked man? He was a Texas Ranger that was shot and nearly killed in an ambush. When he awoke, he was the only one left alive. His friends and his brother were all dead and he was fully aware that the ambush wasn’t happenstance. They had been set up – and he was the only one left.

He was saved in most versions of the story by the assistance of an old friend, an Indian by the name of Tonto. Tonto elected to come along to help the now recovered Ranger as he tried to get justice for those who had been killed. Going back into town as himself would probably have gotten a knife in his back, so the Ranger adopted the habit of wearing a mask. He located and managed to tame a wonderful horse – and his career as the Lone Ranger began.

Incidentally, the ‘lone’ part was from being the lone survivor – everyone knew Tonto was always going to be around to pull the Ranger’s bacon out of the fire if necessary. Besides, Tonto wasn’t a Texas Ranger.

A couple decades after the first radio broadcast of the Lone Ranger’s exploits he was an old friend. He came into our living rooms once a week and defeated whatever evil he was challenged with. His greatness – and Tonto’s – long since assured when he chose justice over revenge and decided to keep the mask to continue helping the weak, the desperate and the victims of injustice.

The Lone Ranger didn’t fight alone. He didn’t fight for glory. He didn’t fight for fame. He often recognized the heroics of the ordinary folks around him – he didn’t think his super heroic advantages made him a hero which was why he could see the heroism in the farmer’s wife that spoke up for what was right – while he was saving her from the villain, of course. He could see the courage in the down on his luck former lawman who accepted a badge once more – and yes, the Ranger did the shooting but the guy who hadn’t held a gun in years was the one facing down the gun slingers in the street.

The Lone ranger had the courage and the fortitude to chose right and justice over wrong and injustice in a world full of the latter two. He had the wisdom to recognize that same form of heroism in others. the combination made him one of the greatest heroes of all time. At least, until we thought we didn’t need him anymore.

It became ‘modern’ or ‘sophisticated’ to make fun of the way that the Lone Ranger always triumphed in the end. That good would always triumph over evil – how naive, how quaint. Who would want to live in a world where evil always – or even often – won? But no one asked that question and we outgrew the fiery horse with the speed of light, the faithful Indian companion and the souvenir silver bullet left as the Ranger’s calling card. We were too sophisticated for a white hat world.

And we wonder now why so many people – even kids – are on anti-depressants. Is it causal? Likely not – but it is related. It’s not so easy to live in a world of constant uncertainty, of impending evil, of unknown threat – especially not when we allow ourselves to believe that heroes are just fantasy.

But are they? Do heroes need starships, lightsabers, web shooters or silver bullets? Certainly, those things help – but they aren’t what makes a hero. The Lone Ranger wasn’t a hero because he had a silver mine and could make impossible shots – he was a hero because he chose to fight for justice. Being able to shoot guns out of people’s hands was a great asset (yeah, yeah, we know, it’s impossible – but so is web slinging) but it’s not what makes him a hero.

The Lone Ranger is a hero because he choses to fight for truth, justice and the American way. Just because it sounds corny doesn’t make it any the less true – and maybe if we were a little less concerned about being corny and a little more concerned about making the world a better place we’d realize that we never did outgrow the Lone Ranger and we never stopped needing him. We just got to the point where instead of waiting for him, we had to be the hero ourselves.

If we’d realized that back then, we’d have grown up as a nation a lot more and a lot more quickly. We want a white hat world – we need it. To get it, we too, must chose right over wrong, justice over injustice.

And maybe holler our own hearty ‘heigh ho, Silver!’.