The legend has it that a posse of six members of the Texas Ranger Division pursuing a band of outlaws led by Bartholomew “Butch” Cavendish is betrayed by a civilian guide named Collins and is ambushed in a canyon named Bryant’s Gap. Later, an Indian stumbles onto the scene and discovers one ranger is barely alive, and he nurses the man back to health. The Indian recognizes the lone survivor as the man who saved his life when they both were children. The Indian gave the man named Reid a ring and the name Kemo Sabe, which means “trusty scout”.
Among the Rangers killed was the survivor’s older brother, Daniel Reid, who was a captain in the Texas Rangers and the leader of the ambushed group. To conceal his identity and honor his fallen brother, Reid fashions a black domino mask using cloth from his late brother’s vest. To aid in the deception, the Indian digs a sixth grave and places at its head a cross bearing Reid’s name so that Cavendish and his gang would believe that all of the Rangers had been killed. The Indian’s name was Tonto and Reid the lone surviving ranger from the ambush became The Lone Ranger.
Taken in part from Wikipedia
Bench Notice
Why is this story so important today? A radio and television series that ran in the late 1940’s through the mid 50’s that I didn’t even have an opportunity to watch, and really didn’t understand what the Lone Ranger represented until very recently while watching retro television. It’s fiction, but as I watched it I came to realize that this show was not just for its entertainment qualities but how it depicted what was right with the world and how one man could make a difference.
The Lone Ranger lived by a certain moral code. He was consistent, never changed, and even when he had to use his gun he never shot to kill but rather to disarm. He had the ability to disarm the perpetrator using both physical and verbal means.
He believed:
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 and to fight when necessary for what 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 his Creator, his country, and his fellow man.
We live in a world today that is so filled with intolerance, disrespect, irresponsibility and at times hatred that one may ask: why bother trying to use his standard to live by? I ask why not ? Remember his name, The Lone Ranger, one man who was trying to make the world a better place. We need to teach our kids some of the qualities of the Lone Ranger and help them begin to believe that they have the ability to make changes in this world. The key to the 99 is the 1. One person can make a difference in this world and slowly but surely the tide begins to change. First in one circle and then in others until the masses believe that they all have the ability to make a difference.
Where do we start? Well let’s see what we can begin to do to change ourselves first, then how we can help others by using some of The Lone Ranger’s moral code.
