THE UPSTATE AMERICAN

How to save America's golden age

Athens and Rome once led the world, but their time passed. Has ours, too?

18 hrs ago • 

REX SMITH

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Farmers keep going. So do soldiers. And us?

Lessons of the fall in a time of national distress.

Oct 11 • 

REX SMITH

11

Lessons of Argyll in facing today's tyrant

An ancestor's steadfastness offers inspiration. Maybe it is even passed down to us.

Oct 4 • 

REX SMITH

12

4

September 2025

Violence is not our inevitable future

The next step after Charlie Kirk's assassination may depend upon our expectations

Sep 13 • 

REX SMITH

8

1

Seven words for the resistance

Like learning to discern a wine's flavor, we must understand how we describe our objectives in order to confront Donald Trump's authoritarian rule

Sep 6 • 

REX SMITH

13

2

August 2025

On county fairs and mistreated workers

Labor Day Weekend evokes both memories and thoughts of those mistreated by Trump's purge

Aug 30 • 

REX SMITH

12

1

Buttering up the Boss of America

Donald Trump loves flattery, but those of us who aren't so inclined have other tools at our disposal

Aug 23 • 

REX SMITH

9

3

How the arts challenge Trumpism

The human spirit is sustained by exposure to the arts. That's not good for would-be autocrats.

Aug 16 • 

REX SMITH

11

3

Galloping backwards in Trump's America

In countless ways, the president wants to return us to earlier times. What do you suppose he is afraid of?

Aug 9 • 

REX SMITH

12

A nation, its food and its morality

There's a line linking the gutting of global aid with our complicated approach to food

Aug 2 • 

REX SMITH

6

2

July 2025

Take time for the Upstates

The value of getting away from the everyday

Jul 26 • 

REX SMITH

17

4

Growing butterflies, sustaining hope

Through small individual acts, our society can create pathways to recovery

Jul 19 • 

REX SMITH

11

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