Loy Edge, front and center
Small towns, once seen as suffocating, are increasingly seen as liberating. Many Americans this past year were shocked to see how eagerly public officials in metropolitan areas seized whatever power they had at their disposal to control elements of civic life that, until very recently, were thought of as being beyond state control.
In general, rural areas resisted the rush to regulate. With each passing day, their resistance seems to have been the more prudent course—emotionally, spiritually, and certainly economically.
As a result, Edge argues, there is a “megatrend of people wanting to re-experience basic American values,” and a growing belief that those values can still be found in small-town America. Having driven across Missouri a few times this summer on Route 36—no more I-70 for me—I get what Edge is aiming at.
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