Right now, I really have no choice
But to voice the truth to the nations
For Such a Time As This – Wayne Watson
Interestingly, music was Wayne Watsons fallback career. He wanted to be a professional baseball player and had heavy interest from colleges to have him play, but he was inspired while leading worship at a Christian youth camp, where the parent of one of the children at the camp videotaped Watson leading worship and sent it to a record company. He would go on to record 23 No. 1 singles on Christian radio in the late 1980s and early 1990s.
Those who watched the CBS television series Touched by an Angel will remember For Such a Time As This being the main theme song of the series. This week, however, that was a song running through my head.
I am German and Irish in my lineage, and that has shaped two major things in my life. First, I can get a burn on my skin from even the mention of the word sun. Second, and most important for this past week, Im much more comfortable deflecting praise than receiving it.
I cannot express how incredible it has been to be part of the Huron community this week as well as the community of incredible people who call themselves journalists within the state of South Dakota – and beyond.
I made a simple post on Facebook on Wednesday evening after a confirmation email I sent to one newspaper about the closing of the papers confirmed a report that had been spread on social media, unfortunately, before many of the staff were able to hear it from their supervisor, and more importantly, someone who was going through the same loss.
Because I was willing to put my name on the closures, I was inundated with interview requests – seventeen on Thursday and Friday alone, and a few more since. I granted one interview to a Huron native working for a publication that I trusted could get the message out in a straight, news-centered manner.
But interview requests were the least of what overwhelmed me those first few days after the closure.
I typically post 1-2 posts on Facebook a monthmaybe. Those posts get interaction from my family, and thats about it. The original post I made Wednesday night went viral, and after the post was quoted in an Associated Press article about the closures, plenty of folks sought out the original Facebook post for its entirety (always a good thing to do, by the way), and when I last looked at metrics, I had more than 30,000 views of that single Facebook post alone.
Add in literally hundreds of Facebook messages and text messages from all over the state, and it was a lot!
While Ive been involved in music and theater and fill in on the pulpit, comfort with public speaking does not equate enjoyment of the attention that public speaking brings!
On Wednesday, among multiple trips in and out of my office after he shared the terrible news about the closer, our publisher, Shaun Sarvis, sat with me, and we talked through the type of buyer that we hoped could potentially step up and purchase the paper. Shaun believes (and I trust his judgment) that we have exactly the type of owner we both were hoping for in our new situation for the Plainsman.
What I want to express to the community is how incredible you all have made me feel over the past week. I could not have asked for more support, and that has allowed me to focus my efforts on helping the staff at the paper as we had to do unfortunate things like file for unemployment (reemployment assistance, to be technically correct) to ensure we were all covered if the paper was closed for an extended time.
I truly have felt an abundance of patience and energy for things that normally would drain me in this process, and much of that has come from the support of each and every one of you.
Now, what can you do as we move forward?
Remember how you felt on August 6 when you first heard that your community was potentially going to be without a local newspaper.
Support the writers here at the paper – we still have four people in the newsroom to cover a land area larger than three U.S. states! If you havent subscribed, please strongly consider subscribing and share your enjoyment of the newspaper and the unique, local coverage that you get from your newspaper with your friends, family, and anyone who will listen!
We sincerely appreciate your support, and we certainly hope that we dont have to go through a week like the past one any time soon in order to experience that appreciation!
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