famine in the land

the average American child forty years ago could create pictures in his head when reading a written story. That child could easily elaborate, with descriptive details, on that story.

today, an alarming number of young children cannot paint any picture with words when they read a written story. they have no imagination. they possess no skills, no tools, to translate or communicate that written word. 

it is this fact that has changed the way some generations in America now value, or value less, written creations... and the author is no longer valued as a contributor of culture, entertainment, or values. 

when asked what children want to become when they grow up, the category "author" is no longer mentioned. children mention careers they know nothing about, valuing those that they have heard are the highest paying professions. 

where are the dreamers?

where is the imagination? 

how can we engage a generation of video-addicted children to expand their minds to create visual pictures in their heads as they read a series of words on paper or screen? 

this is one of the most important under-reported stories in America today. we need to intervene, to mentor, to bring children back to a place where they can imagine, they can picture, where they can create a story within their minds from the words and sequence of words presented to them on a page.

we need to address the famine in the land. 

there are many pages, many books, many written stories... but until a child knows how to convert those words within these books into images that create pictures within, they will lack critical skills needed to be imaginative, productive, problem-solving innovators. 

without a vision, the people perish.

A Far Fine Country (the first paragraphs)

 

He sniffed the musky air, broke off the bark of a pine, and darted through the bushes...as if looking for it. A wail, from somewhere on the ridge to the right...the reverb echoed inside his soul. He slipped through the shrub-boulder maze, passing rusty-red rhododendron, to the rock ring before his canvas green tent. 

Distributing bark and twigs inside the ring...blowing one last length of light, tinder crumbling before the whisper-like wind threatened to cool the pit...suddenly a drizzle descended, a mist bathing him. And with it, the sounds of the forest deteriorated into discord. In this dissonance, his heart raced, his head pounded, and his frame stiffened.

But deep in the gray green forests of the gathering darkness, the presence lingered, ever elusive. And though the mountains and the sky melted into the night, the presence hid where no man could hide, between the realm of the known and the unknown...

A canopy of tears emptied from the leaves above, and the hiker wiped his face. The cascade of drops caught the last embers unprepared, and doused his hopes...the fire died, and another stepped in to where the shadowlands had been. There were eyes behind the pines, red bullets that pierced the night...

in the space above

 The Ukraine-Russia War, the advancement of recreational drone technology, and the awakening of a people to their basic human rights, threatens to bring domestic havoc to the landowners of America.

The concept of domestic American air ownership, which was defined by the Chicago Convention of 1944, insinuates that every landowner owns 500 feet above the land they own. In this decade, however, drone technology is being used by some corporate entities, to assess and investigate property, as well as deliver goods to and from that property. 

My involvement in this argument for and against the use of drones in this privately-owned space came about in the last decade when a number of real estate and insurance companies decided that inspection and analysis by drone should be the new methodology for more accurate information gathering. Several companies I knew were aggressively planning for a drone-filled tomorrow, with camera-equipped drones buzzing around targeted properties, with or without the landowner's knowledge. As one engaged in property photography, in contract with various entities, I found this assumption that drones would be acceptable, if not preferable, to any commercial operation, a human relations nightmare. In the land of the litigious, this thinking could bring more lawsuits that anyone could handle or afford. It reflects bad business practices, not to mention a complete ignorance of air rights. 

Yet today there are commercial firms using drone technology as a method of information gathering and analysis. Not the majority, but a minority. While it may be a good idea in some countries, or even some cities, in my part of the world, it is a profoundly bad idea. 

We are, it appears, still living in the formative stages of the concept of domestic residential air property rights. But with the technology becoming more pervasive, those who want to use drones to investigate private property, will push the limits of the fair use of air space. The more invasive, the more private landowners will push back. And the more they push back, the more difficult it will be to investigate private properties for use for information gathering requiring assessments and damage reports that other technology cannot provide at scale, nor in a specific time frame.

Knowing what I know, having interacted with thousands of landowners over the years, I have not yet met one individual who would be pleased with a drone flying close to their windows, doors, roof, and dogs...in the USA, that technology is liable to be destroyed by the more irritated owner. 

If I showed up at a property, without an appointment and a legally binding contract allowing me use of a drone in their air rights, to photograph a property for a client, would I be using common sense? Would I be producing better quality analysis with less irritation to the landowner? No, of course not. I would be stirring up a hornet's nest- figuratively...and maybe literally.