Like many kids from the baby boom generation, I grew up watching cowboy movies.

I saw that the good guys wore white and the bad guys wore black, with one exception that broke the tradition. Hopalong Cassidy was a good cowboy wearing black, but when I read about him further, the author who created Hopalong once portrayed him as a villain.

In real life, no one that I know wears black and flies around to save the world, but there are a few who come close.

One superhero wore a black robe and served as a chief judge of the municipal court of Providence, Rhode Island, but to 15 million TV viewers, he was known for settling his cases with empathy and humor. Frank Caprio died a few weeks ago at age 88.

The former dishwasher and shoe shiner won a Rhode Island state wrestling title in 1953. He earned a college degree and worked during the day as a high school teacher while he attended law school at night.

Caprio served in the Army National Guard in a combat engineer battalion, and after a stint in the political arena, he took his seat on the bench as a popular TV judge to settle misdemeanor civil and traffic cases.

He never ruled with an iron hand of the law. He dismissed a red light ticket given to a struggling bartender who was hurrying to get to his night job. He dismissed another ticket to a high school student as long as the young man promised to earn a college degree. Another time, Caprio asked a young boy if his father was guilty or not guilty for driving 10 miles over the speed limit.

“Guilty!” exclaimed his son. The judge dismissed that ticket too and praised the young boy for his honesty. In two others cases, Caprio dismissed traffic violations and told the accused to buy their kids breakfasts instead of paying the fines.

He also threw out a charge made against a veteran who parked on a sidewalk next to a VA hospital because he needed treatment and there was nowhere else to park. Caprio thanked the man for his service to our country.

Perhaps his most famous verdict was to dismiss $400 in traffic fines for a destitute woman who was trying to come to terms with her son’s recent death.

Of course, Judge Caprio didn’t let everyone go free from paying their fines, but his sense of humanity was never compromised by his legal authority.

Another man wearing black was Judge Lee Shapiro, A bumper sticker on his car read, “Don’t bug me. Hug me! Shapiro created what he called his Hugging Kit. On the outside of the kit were the words, “A heart for a hug.” Inside were little red embroidered hearts. In exchange for a hug, Shapiro gave away one of his little hearts. His mission was to spread the news that love is the highest power there is.

Sometimes, Shapiro dismissed charges, hugged the violators and told them to not commit any more offenses. The records show that those he hugged never broke the law again.

Then there’s the Honorable Adrianne N. Heely Caires, who presided over a Hawaii Family Court. Despite being evacuated from her home during the Maui wildfires, she went to work every day to make sure foster children had safe places to live. She also located new shelters for those who had lost their homes.

Back in 1972, Judge Dennis Challeen in Minnesota created the community service sentence because he believed that incarceration was a disconnect for inmates from social responsibilities, and they needed to find purpose in giving to their communities.

The Honorable Angela M. Cox had grown up in a violent Detroit neighborhood in which her brother was murdered. She became the first African American woman appointed to Florida’s 4th Judicial Circuit bench. She also became the first African American woman to be named dean of Florida Judicial College in its almost 50 year history.

Judge Eric Dooyema from Washington is known for ignoring political pressure to decide his verdicts, and therefore, he has been jeopardizing his position in the court ever since.

Maya Guerra Gamble presided over the district court in Travis County, Texas, under media scrutiny in the Heslin vs. Jones trial when conspiracy theorist Alex Jones, a popular radio broadcaster, accused Sandy Hook parents of being actors who made up the 2012 school massacre in which many children were killed at an elementary school in Connecticut.

Gamble was harassed and threatened by some of Jones’ followers after her ruling against Jones and in favor of the parents’ lawsuit. She reprimanded Jones for lying under oath: “This is not your show. Here in this courtroom, you need to tell the truth.”

And finally, at a high school graduation last year, a principal and a man who organized the event were seen wearing sneakers under their black suits. The reason was unknown to many, but they had given their black dress shores to two students who had come to graduation wearing sneakers because they were poor and didn’t own dress shoes.

The Oxford Dictionary defines “hero” as a person who has noble qualities. Of course, we celebrate the heroes who fight for our freedom and those who keep our communities safe. But sometimes, our heroes are people who are in positions of authority but never lose their sense of humanity. They do the little things that make an heroic difference.

So, what can we do to be heroes? Just being kind can be an act of heroism to help someone who is down and out in life to feel better. The Dalai Lama said, “If you think you’re too small to make a difference, try lying down next to a mosquito.”

Email Rich Strack at richiesadie11@gmail.com