White Hats

     Some of you may not remember this, but I recall watching the old westerns on TV back in the 1950s and 60s.  There were characters like Hopalong Cassidy, the Cisco Kid, Roy Rogers with Dale Evans, and who could forget the Lone Ranger and his companion Tonto?  There were also many western series on TV:  High Chaparral, The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp, Zorro, The Big Valley, Wagon Train, Bonanza, and my personal favorite Gunsmoke.  There were many others at that time also.

     If you will remember, however, the basic theme in all these programs was the good guys wore the white hats!  Regardless of what the bad guys did at the end of the program, in that brief 30 or 60 minutes of fast-action western flair, the good guys had to win!  It was a simple rule written into the programming ethics of that time.  No matter HOW unpredictable the situations proved to be, in the end the good guys would always come out on top!

     Compare that to today’s programming.  There are not very many westerns that are made today, but the principle is still in place:  there are the GOOD guys and there are the BAD guys!  The problem is that there are no more WHITE hats!

     At times during a movie or TV program it is very difficult to tell who the good guys and the bad guys are.  Don’t get me wrong.  I know the program will explicitly define who is on this side and who is on that side.  Well, almost all the time they will do this.  The problem is that in many cases the good guy has to be as bad (or worse) than the bad guy to defeat him.  And at times the movie or program will very realistically reflect the “real” world because the good guy doesn’t always win.  There at times when the finale of the movie or the TV episode ends in a stalemate!

     Sadly, that is truly how live turns out.  We can’t tell the good guys from the bad and at times we make terrible decisions based on an assumption that turns out to be incorrect.  If we could only return to those thrilling days of yesteryear:  When the good guys always wore the WHITE hats and we knew who we should be supporting, because in the end the good guys ALWAYS win!

QUOTE TO CONSIDER

THOUGHTFUL GEM

"Things may not always be as they appear.

But time has a way of exposing the truth!"