If you can bring your shattered dreams
And Ill bring mine
Could healing still be spoken
And save us?
Broken Together – Casting Crowns
From the opening instrumental with a pulsing single key on the piano as the song begins around it, Broken Together pulls the listener forward to the enchanting melody of the chorus. By the time you get to the second time through the chorus, with incredible harmony added, you begin to pick up that this is actually a very, very sad song.
Casting Crowns formed in Florida in 1999 when a group of youth ministers and music ministers working at a church found that they had a unique, powerful musical connection and began recording. They continue to work in churches while becoming one of the most successful Christian recording groups of the millennium to this point.
Broken Together was recorded as part of the Thrive album, the sixth studio album released by Casting Crowns. The song profiles a couple working through a tough time in their marriage and coming to God to find a way to move forward. The next line of the song is one that many recall in the song, The only way well last forever is broken together.
Breaking things became en vogue early this year. The influence of Elon Musk on the current administration brought the second-generation tech bro phrase of move fast and break things to the forefront. It was seen in the work done by DOGE, the on-again, off-again nature of tariff announcements, and was seen in so many of the actions taken as part of the big beautiful law that Congress passed, much of which no member of Congress even read.
The first generation of tech explosion in Silicon Valley was led by a much different type of innovator. Men like Steve Jobs and Bill Gates moved fast, but they were also very intentional about what the wake of that movement would be, and the end goal was always to further the human race through innovation. Sometimes, they went too far – Jobs, the face behind the innovation of the iPhone, famously did not allow his children to have a cell phone of any kind before they graduated high school, but the goal was always bettering humanity…all of it.
One of the themes when discussing fallout from political action has been the response, to the victor go the spoils. Meaning, if your favored party (or more accurately, faction of a party) wins an election, the following actions taken by those in power that could potentially impact others are completely okay, because there was a victory at the ballot box to decide that.
When the paper shuttered on Aug. 6, my first thoughts had very little to nothing to do with my own well-being. I was confident in my ability to be employed again, and quickly, if the paper wouldnt reopen. No, my first two thoughts were simultaneous and instant. I thought about my co-workers, especially those in the newsroom, and how they were going to survive a potential loss of income. The second line of thought was that the local communities we served would immediately be without anyone to report community events, highlight achievements, inform, and bring light to the acts of those in positions supported by our tax dollars.
I could have turned tail and run far from the struggle that reopening the newspaper would be and left those co-workers and the community behind, but that was never a consideration in my mind.
I was disheartened at the response of many in the state when the news of South Dakota Public Broadcasting cuts was made known recently. My family was on multiple episodes during a recent season of one of the shows that received the axe, and the information from that season, which focused on education, youth justice, and the foster care/adoption system within the state, led to some real changes proposed in Pierre in the two years since it was broadcast. Not all of those changes have passed through the legislature, but some of the items proposed in the first round of legislative bills were implemented by Social Services outside of the legislative process because they simply made sense.
Without that eye on the actions of our own legislators, what will be their motivation to be responsive to all people in the state, not just those in their faction of their party?
When we act without regard to who or what could be the fallout of our actions, the ones hurt often arent even considered until well afterwards.
Certainly, private donors could step up and ensure the important work of food banks, public television/radio, local fire and emergency management departments, and so many others who have had funding slashed or eliminated, continues, but then you run into the question of whether those particular entities are then beholden to a private donor due to their financial involvement.
Thankfully, the Plainsman was purchased quickly, but that quick movement also had some things broken as staff are still unable to access previous email addresses, finally getting new email set up this week. Moving quickly ensured that the community did not lose its news source, but there are pieces to pick up.
Who will be the one to pick up those broken pieces for the paper? For the hungry in our state? For those places in the state now faced with a potential news desert due to the loss of SDPB radio and television coverage?
As the song says, the only way we can survive this sort of breaking is together, not factioning into political parties, dividing over issues, or sinking deeper into our particular in-groups. We need to reach across our divides and work together when those who we entrusted to protect all of us leave some of the least of these behind.
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