A surveillance blimp always hung above my border town. This is what it taught me.

For those who reside under the dry Arizona heat in the small border town of Sierra Vista between Arizona and Sonora, Mexico, the white surveillance blimp never gives us any respite from the sun. Instead, it serves as a constant reminder: You are being watched. The blimp rises into the sky before residents wake up and typically dips back down to its asphalt landing before sundown, commanded by a crew of people entirely on land. It floats about 25,000 feet in the air — the length of 700-some sch...