Do we need a superhero?
Most of us talk about the country being hopelessly divided, and recently we have had some rough times. I mean, last week we even had smoke fill the area that came all the way from Canada, for goodness’ sake. And that was for the second time, at least since I’ve been here.
So we could use the help.
Superheroes are popular, too. So many Marvel and DC comic movies have been made over the past several years that I don’t know anyone who has seen them all.
Mainly, though, I started thinking about superheroes because apparently my hometown now has one. He’s — I’m assuming he is in fact a he, but the character is wearing a mask, after all — called the Roanoke Raven, and he’s collected thousands of fans on social media.
He’s such a phenomenon that the CBS TV station in Roanoke, which used to be only a five-minute drive from my parents’ house, even broadcast a story about him.
The masked man says he is an EMT and firefighter, WDBJ7 said, and he posts about projects he says are aimed at “making the city a better place.”
“We live in a city where thousands and thousands of emergencies happen a day and no one really talks about them,” the TV station quoted the Roanoke Raven as saying. “There are people on the street right now, homeless and not having the ability to eat at night, and you got people passing them that refuse to make eye contact with them. That’s the society we live in right now.”
The Raven’s posts show him starting with small efforts like picking up litter, then moving to larger projects, including donating 120 water bottles during a recent heat wave, WDBJ said.
Sounds good to me. Also, he had me at “Raven” and a black-and-purple color scheme, as I’m a Baltimore Ravens football fan.
All of this got me thinking not about the NFL, though, but about how Fredericksburg could use a superhero.
Maybe he could wear University of Mary Washington colors, as that’s the college in the center of our region.
What would a costumed Fred Vegas champion do?
On this, I’ve got lots of ideas.
He could rescue you from traffic jams. I drive on Interstate 95 constantly, so I like this. Of course, that begets the question of what to do with your car. Anyone who has been in interstate traffic and also seen the 1993 movie “Falling Down” with Michael Douglas has probably fantasized about ditching their ride right there in the lane of traffic and just walking away.
A Fredericksburg superhero also could save your place in a long line at Carl’s if you need to duck out to go to the bathroom.
He could help Friends of the Rappahannock with river cleanups.
Our neighbors who support data centers would probably like if he helped build them faster. And those who don’t like them would likely say that he could stop them altogether.
I’m not getting into that debate today, however. I still have to cover both sides of the issue.
A superhero could help watermen with crabbing, too. More crabs are good for everybody. This is a regional asset in a hero. The Roanoke Raven can’t really go down this road. I didn’t think I liked crab cakes until I had one in Baltimore. When you get crab cakes in Roanoke, the emphasis is on the “cake”, not the crab.
Some residents of Embrey Mill and Austin Ridge in Stafford County probably wish a superhero could have saved them from the recently approved Buc-ee’s gas station and convenience store. But that ship seems to have sailed, and the Buc-ee’s beaver mascot is at the helm.
If in time the tension lessens, though, the Fred superhero maybe could pal around with the Buc-ee’s beaver. You never know.
My friend Kipp posted as a joke on Facebook that I was actually the Roanoke Raven. But I would have to almost literally know how to fly to be able to fight crime in Southwest Virginia and then make it back here in time to cover Stafford Board of Supervisors meetings.
So I am definitely not an expert on superheroes.
That’s why I’d like you to write me, and let me know your ideas on what a Fredericksburg superhero could do and be. You can email me at [email protected], or direct-message The Free Press if you see this column on social media.
Also, let us know what you think the hero should look like. I would love it if we could get an artist to do a composite drawing of what the crusader would look like, too, though I can’t promise that just yet.
Or, I can promise only that I won’t draw it, unless your idea of a Fredericksburg superhero is a stick figure with a cape.
