The Lone Ranger Rides Again

"A fiery horse with the speed of light, a cloud of dust, and a hearty, "Hi-Yo, Silver, Away." With his faithful Indian companion, Tonto, the daring and resourceful masked rider of the plains led the fight for law and order in the early West. Nowhere in the pages of history can one find a greater champion of justice. Return with us now to those daring days of yesteryear. From out of the past come the thundering hoof beats of the great horse, Silver."

And then the words that still send a shiver of excitement down my spine, the announcer proclaimed, "The Lone Ranger rides again!"

Those words are familiar even to those of you who aren't old enough to have heard them live. I grew up in the pre-TV era and in the late 1940s adventures on radio were extraordinarily popular among my friends, all 10 year old boys.

At the time we all visualized our hero better than Clayton Moore portrayed him when the program started on TV. Remember that with radio, we HAD to use out imagination. I think that our love affair with heroes started back then. There were lots of them, including Superman, Captain Marvel, Buck Rogers, Sky King, Captain Midnight, The Green Hornet, The Phantom, The Shadow, Red Ryder, and even Jack Armstrong, the All-American Boy.

As old-time radio gave way to TV and the movies, those heroes were replaced by characters played by John Wayne, Clint Eastwood, and a handful of other actors. They continued the concept that there were heroes out to protect women and children and fight for truth, justice, and the American Way.

That doesn't mean that America hasn't longed for real heroes. In fact, it has been a long time since we have had a heroic leader. Politics, in a way, has been changed as candidates portray themselves as the embodiment of the kind of mythic hero we crave. Of course, reality doesn't turn out like that, as the headlines prove daily.

All of us have been damaged by what has gone on in the mortgage industry, Wall Street, and Washington , D.C. The combined write-offs exceed $300 billion, more than a million people have lost their homes through foreclosure, unemployment is going to get worse, and it is likely that the recession we seem to be in is going to be worse and last longer than many think.

Many long for a new Lone Ranger character to appear. But I don't thinkthat our next hero will come riding into town on a horse with the words "U.S. Government" stamped on his haunches. My feeling is that this is just the manifestation of the 10-year old that still exists somewhere within each of us.

The West was not won by storybook heroes.

It was won by simple, dedicated hard working farmers, ranchers, and miners with a pioneering spirit. They came West in search of their own land and the opportunity to make better lives for themselves. Some died of privation or were scalped or were blown off the land in a drought. All those calamities that they faced were much worse than we face in 21st Century America . To my way of thinking, those were the heroes of the West.

We still have heroes just like that today. You are one, and so are the people in your neighborhood, at your job, everywhere you turn. All across America hard working people just want better lives for themselves and their kids and, ultimately, to have a retirement with dignity.

But to get there, we need to restore the values of the pioneers who headed West in the late 1800s. Their survival was dependent upon their own strengths, will- power, resourcefulness, resilience, perseverance, and determination. In our modern, fancy, 21st Century society many have strayed from these traditional American qualities that we know to be true. The fastest way to get through this mess is to have a new birth of those values.

Hear these words from The Lone Ranger's Creed and see if they don't work for you, and for all Americans too.

"I believe.....

That to have a friend, a man must be one.

That all men are created equal and that everyone has within himself the power to make this a better world.

That God put the firewood there, but that every man must gather and light it himself.

In being prepared physically, mentally, and morally to fight when necessary for that which is right.

That a man should make the most of what equipment he has.

That 'this government of the people, by the people, and for the people' shall live always.

That men should live by the rule of what is best for the greatest number.

That sooner or later...somewhere...somehow...we must settle with the world and make payment for what we have taken.

That all things change but truth, and that truth alone, lives on forever.

In my Creator, my country, my fellow man."