Who WAS that Masked Man....?

Clayton Moore.
The Lone Ranger.
And his faithful Indian companion, Tonto, played by Jay Silverheels.
With their horses, Scout and Silver.
And, even now, I can never hear the finale of Rossini's William Tell Overture without wanting to return to those thrilling days of yesteryear.

As a little kid, I always liked it that the Ranger wore a mask, so that his good deeds were anonymous, and that he never stuck around for a "thank you" after saving somebody's grits.  I admired that he used bullets made of silver to remind himself that life was precious -- even the bad guy's life -- and that he didn't shoot to kill, but to disarm, a practice that may be of extremely limited tactical utility in real life.

Funny thing, Moore and Silverheels apparently came to take their parts --- and their position as "role models" for us kids -- very seriously.

Three parts of the "Lone Ranger Creed" that stuck with me:
 

• that all men are created equal and that everyone has within himself the power to make this a better world.
• being prepared physically, mentally, and morally to fight when necessary for that which is right.
• that all things change but truth, and that truth alone, lives on forever.

 Like the Lone Ranger, I sometimes wear a mask.

Unlike the Lone Ranger, I am sometimes, of moral imperative, an outlaw.

aac