On Monday Jan. 20, the newly sworn-in president declared two national emergencies, signed 26 Executive Orders, and fired the first female commandant in charge of a branch of our armed services.

By Friday, Jan. 24, immigration agents had raided a private business in New Jersey without a warrant and detained U.S. citizens including a military veteran, plus some undocumented people. On the same day, a headline in the Wall Street Journal read, “Swaths of U.S. Government Grind to a Halt After Trump Shock Therapy.”

The definition of shock therapy is a procedure that passes an electrical current through the brain to induce a controlled seizure. 

Several officials in the new administration and in the U.S. Congress are openly calling these tactics “shock and awe.” Words are important. “Shock and Awe” is a military term for a rapid dominance battle tactic “...based on the use of overwhelming power and spectacular displays of force to paralyze the enemy’s perception of the battlefield and destroy their will to fight.”

“Shock and Awe” is part of the curriculum adopted in 1996 by the U.S. military’s National Defense University, and was first rolled out in March 2003. Many of us remember watching live, the military’s bombing of Baghdad, a city of five million, in a campaign called Iraqi Freedom. It was the first time that phrase was ever used, and the initial impacts of that campaign were stunning. 

Now we have an administration using that phrase, “Shock and Awe,” on the American people. We have a president who has called ordinary Americans who oppose him “the enemy within.” We have a church under fire for asking for mercy, and media in litigation for reporting the news. But we are also seeing too many media in thrall to the sensational. This practice adds to people’s anxiety. There are at least 80 more Executive Orders to come in the first 100 days. The new administration’s shock strategy is calculated and deliberate; how we react to it can be the same. 

Whether or not you agree with everything that’s printed in our local newspaper, it is one of the bulwarks against the decline of our strong community values. The Leader has become a public forum in the tradition of the ancient agora, in which civil discourse is still possible, with respect for all voices, including those who disagree with one another. 

Therefore, I believe it’s essential to keep in mind the importance of our local forum while seeing this “Shock and Awe” behavior for what it is. It’s vital to not lapse into shouting matches, or to give up on participating because you’re figuring this too shall pass. The goal of using battlefield language against Americans is to make us think that resistance is futile, that we should impotently succumb to outrage fatigue, and take the easier path of apathy and withdrawal. While tempting, that would be a dangerous abdication of citizenship. If you’re an adult or even a teenager, you probably know something about how to take care of yourself when you’re under a lot of stress. You also most likely have a good idea of your knowledge and skills that might be useful in contributing, supporting, nourishing, and defending our community’s values, which are part of why so many people want to live here. 

This is our reservoir of strength. Reservoirs are by definition places where reserves are kept in store. Ours is deep and wide, and it’s time to tap it.  

Karen Sullivan is a retired senior official with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. She and her husband live in Port Townsend.