For many, the 2020 definition of “freedom” is: I don’t have to give a shit about anybody else.

Maybe that’s always been the definition for a sizable portion of humanity and it just seems that portion is more sizable these days, particularly in the purported “land of the free.”

An important part of expressing such “freedom” is the seeming right to kill people that get in our way while we’re driving. Uncertainty exists in New Mexico on whether we can freely dine inside restaurants, but no such uncertainty exists when it comes to “getting back to normal” on our roadways.

A bicyclist was killed by a hit-and-run driver Sunday night on/near Golf Course Rd. in the northwest. Late last week a person was killed by a driver trying to walk along/across Rio Bravo Blvd. in the South Valley. Exactly a week ago,today another walker was killed nearby trying to stay alive along/near Coors and Blake.

Yeah, we’re getting back to normal now. After a short lull in roadway fatalities in the first months of the pandemic, the state death rate spiked back up to a deadly normal in June, particularly for those trying to walk along/across our roads.

Freedom.