Heroes

Originally written in 2020.

I grew up watching shows like Gunsmoke, Bonanza, Maverick, Paladin, The Rifleman, Wyatt Earp, and The Lone Ranger. I probably owe more of my sense of morality to those shows than I want to admit. I realize it would be easy to criticize these TV dramas for being simplistic, anachronistic, or downright historically inaccurate, but I liked them at the time, and I think they taught me a few lessons: Stand up for the defenseless – widows, orphans, the elderly, the sick, and of course, children. The strong ought to protect the weak. There is such a thing as right and wrong. The law is important. So is a fair trial. A hero shouldn’t “shoot first and ask questions later.” Never kick a man when he’s down. Try not to fire the first shot or throw the first punch but be able to defend yourself and those in your care if you must. Fight for what’s right, even if the odds are against you. Practice what you preach. Stick together. Don’t seek credit or fame. Seek truth and justice. Be brave. Be honest. Be strong. Be the man children can look up to and your mother would be proud of. Treat others, even your horse, with kindness and respect.

I watched the Cartwright family wrestling with questions of fairness and integrity. The Rifleman trying to teach his son to stand up for those in need. The Lone Ranger riding off into the sunset rather than waiting to receive even a word of thanks. Marshall Dillon and his friends protecting the innocent and bringing the lawless to justice. It seems to me some TV heroes of the imaginary “old west” were early versions of “the equalizer,” making justice possible for the little guy in a world where bullies, outlaws, and grifters threatened to take anything they could get their hands on.

Later, I watched The Adventures of Superman and read superhero comic books that taught pretty much the same lessons. Superman would do everything he could to capture villains without loss of life. The heroes’ code lived on in many of these stories, at least for the heroes I admired the most. Even so, I could see there were advantages to simply killing the bad guys, and sometimes bad guys did things that got them killed despite my heroes’ best efforts. Nevertheless, the code said to seek justice, not death. I must confess a part of me enjoyed seeing Dirty Harry take down the bad guys with his Smith and Wesson 44 Magnum. Was my sense of satisfaction an unfortunate consequence of realizing bad guys don’t abide by the code, or was it a sign of something darker, more sinister?

Sometimes, we claim to want justice, but we clamor for revenge. In 1992, Clint Eastwood made a film called, Unforgiven. It’s the story of a retired gunslinger, William Munny, who is called back into service against his better judgement. He had a laconic response to a young gunman, The Schofield Kid, who remarked, “Yea…well I guess they had it comin’.” Munny replied, “We all have it comin’ kid.” There is perhaps no better old west summation of Romans 3:23, “for all have sinned.” In a sense we all deserve what we think only bad guys deserve. Later, Munny dryly states, “It’s a hell of a thing, killing a man. You take away everything he’s got and everything he’s ever gonna have.” It seems to me we shouldn’t take a life without good reason or just because we want “closure.” Revenge is easy. Justice is hard.

“Come on. We don’t all commit murder,” some might say. If a man is a known murderer, especially a mass murderer, doesn’t he have it comin’? Isn’t it right to kill such a man, regardless of the heroes’ code? Shouldn’t somebody have a “license to kill” bad men? However, does the fact that a man deserves death mean his death is just, or is the best course of action? What if killing him only leads to more killing? Maybe a person deserves to die after a fair trial, but certainly not before, at least according to the code.

It troubles me that human nature would have us summarily kill a “bad” man. It also troubles me that some of those who loudly shout, “Freedom!” would deny freedom to those who don’t look like them or conform to their expectations. I want to believe the heroes’ code is still valid, but it’s getting more difficult to stand by it. As the world breaks into factions and more people think in terms of us versus them, it’s easy to get the idea that they are “evil” and must get what they deserve, while we are the “good guys,” the rightful dispensers of “justice.” But can we still be heroes if we abandon the code? Jesus told Peter to put his sword away. Perhaps being a hero requires us to practice the lessons of heroism, even when it’s hard. I keep hearing people say, “the ends justify the means.” Really? This is what the bad guys in those old westerns thought. Maybe we should all try to be heroes instead.