The Verde Valley is one of the most beautiful places I have ever been. In a way, though, it is one of the most depressing. What makes it so is the variety of dead creatures on the various roadways. Rabbits and skunks are quite common but javelina, coyote and fox I have also seen; and I in my truck have had near-misses with all five of them, and with deer as well.

Yet I keep driving, and so do my fellow Verde Valley residents, and so has all of the automotivated populace for more than a hundred years. We ourselves are the most numerous of the roadkill. “That’s a real shame,” we think as we pass another squished-in-the-middle carcass. But we do not indict ourselves for all of this carnage. We see it as too bad but inevitable; and that to me is proof that we and I have a long ways to go, ethically.