Once upon a time and not so far away, Vanstory Hills Elementary School was an icon of privilege. It was white. Things changed within Cumberland Country Schools, and I began to see a familiar scenario evolve a few thousand feet from our home. I experienced this scenario first hand at Margaret Willis School in the early 1970's. Black specks began to emerge at the school. How has Vanstory Hills Elementary School remained a pinnacle of quality education for children? The school has become subject to the same inequities haunting other reputable Fayetteville neighborhoods, and it is not integration and bussing as a result of the redrawing of school district lines. Low flying aircraft above the school and its surrounding neighborhood also is inevitable as a result of the manipulation of flight paths at the Fayetteville Airport. Perhaps the identification of low flying aircraft could earn students extra credit. Several years ago when a flasher was exposing himself, two Beechcraft King Air 350 surveillance planes flew concentric circles in the sky above the school. Living in close proximity to the playground, we were subject to this annoyance. Likewise if I threw my axe at a fallen tree in the woods behind the school, several seconds later an aircraft would appear over my head. I discovered the Fayetteville Arms Room had been built on Executive Place. This gated entity organizes and keeps track of all the weaponry used at Fort Bragg. Adjacent to Harris Teeter was a large, gated, outdoor facility with massive communication satellite dishes. They were owned by L3. Eventually when the Arms Room relocated, this facility vanished. Sierra Nevada, a defense contractor located near Grannis Field, manufactures surveillance arrays for these expensive twin engine aircraft. The markings on the planes were Customs and Border Patrol and the Department of Homeland Security. When the planes finally disappeared a muted Cessna took their place. Replete with an aircraft muffler it circled the city continuously. Recently several Cessna pilots and owners have crashed and died, one killing innocent people in a trailer by the airport. The Army has a small plane at Signature Aviation. During Fayetteville's purported agrarian Golden Age incumbent home owners were not subject to the nuisance of continuous low flying aircraft, especially directly above their homes. Like most evolved communities flight paths are kept away from living areas. Vanstory Elementary School has succumbed to the same ills as the rest of the city of Fayetteville. Because old money's influence is dying out, and because our educational system purposely has been neglected to under educate young adults, Ground Forces Command does what it pleases. The DOD changed the flight paths at Grannis Field, so aircraft can more expediently fly to the base. I am mystified how commercial flights fly directly through what should be secure and guarded air space. The day after Christmas in Cumberland County was the most extensive air show in our history, but without aircraft. Criss-crossing chem trails littered the blue sky
in an insulting homage to the birth of Jesus. There are things other than the military. There are things that do not deal with killing the enemy, especially when tainted media obscure them. Not all Americans want an economy of war as defined by Dwight D. Eisenhower. Some of us want to live in peace and moderation, not wealth and imperialism. The long term ramifications of low-flying air traffic is exacerbated by the felling of trees within the city limits. Trees scrub carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, and jet fuel creates it. Our eyes burn most of the time from the stark decline of air quality in Fayetteville as a result of rail and air traffic. The idea that a freight rail provider is "green" is propaganda. The consequences of the military industrial complex are threefold. They are air quality, infrasound, and electromagnetic radiation. As a performing musician, composer, and artist these things are anathema. In the "Electronic Age" which has been predicted, airborne electricity becomes the death of the planet. The container in which the human race lives is tangible, fragile, and nourishing. When it is destroyed the human entity has no options. Violence erupts. When you create sound pressure and electricity in an all ready compromised atmosphere, where are we supposed to go? Elon Musk has that answer, but planet Earth traditionally has been good enough for the common man.