Letter to the editor

A member of the roadkill community

Ramona Gault March 7, 2005 From the print edition
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  The cover of HCN caught my eye as I sorted through the mail yesterday evening. I opened it and began reading Eliza Murphy’s article, "The Asphalt Graveyard," while putting away groceries (HCN, 2/7/05: Caught in the Headlights). I was so gripped by it that I didn’t make it to the dining table but just spread the paper over the counter and continued reading, my chores forgotten. It affected me the way the deaths of these innocent creatures do: terrible to look at but impossible to turn away from.

As a small child, every spring I retrieved the flattened bodies of toads from the road in front of my house and buried them, with flowers, in the backyard, so I guess that makes me one of the "roadkill community," as Ms. Murphy terms it. Generally this subject is one that our culture pretends not to see. I thank Ms. Murphy for listening to her inner promptings and following this story, and I thank HCN for bringing this difficult subject matter to its readers’ attention.

Ramona Gault Seattle, Washington

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