Where There Is Fire, Manifest Lake

At a recent event, I chatted with a consultant whose area of focus and expertise intrigued me. Long a practitioner of martial arts, he now travels the country to instruct organizations, from corporations to churches, to employ verbal martial arts techniques to create more fruitful communications outcomes between adversarial groups. From what I gathered, an example might be a business competitor or individual whose approach to problem solving is consistently reactionary and divisive. By using Judo precepts in a method referred to as “the martial art of the mind and mouth,” the energy of the antagonistic language is leveraged using a verbally empathetic “throw,” if you will, which results in the situation being neutralized and thereby providing the opportunity for productive discourse.

Credit for the concept is given to George J. Thompson, Ph.D., a former English professor and black-belt master of karate. It was during his years as an urban police officer that he came up with the idea of verbal judo. Before his death in 2011, he founded the Verbal Judo Institute and authored Verbal Judo: The Gentle Art of Persuasion, in which he is quoted as saying, “when you react, the event controls you. When you respond, you’re in control.”

In addition to all our favorite oldy moldy reasons for disagreement, the ante has been upped due to the current political landscape. One current hot topic is the dispatching of National Guard troops to cities in America, providing ever more fodder for discord along the crowded avenues of rancor and hiss. The urgent question is how to leverage our reactions into something beneficial for all?

Storm Large has an answer. If you’ve never heard of the Portland-based performer, you’ve missed out. A singer with a huge range, from alto to soprano, and a mastery of many styles, pop to rock to classical to torch songs, she is irreverent, fearless and vulnerable at once. Widely acclaimed, she performs nationally with her own band and tours internationally with Portland’s Pink Martini. And don’t just take my word for it. “She is an intoxicating and unmissable cocktail of power and vulnerability.” The London Times “She can smolder like a chanteuse and then she lets fly with one of the most powerful rock voices I have ever heard in my life and have you pinned to the back wall with its intensity.” Short Back & Sides: Adelaide Reviews

When Portland’s Willamette Week recently asked readers to comment on the arrival of National Guard troops in the city, Storm Large responded. Anthony Effinger’s October 8 WW piece titled “At Ease, Soldier” set up the article this way: “…if he (Trump) did read things, he might know that violent crime in Portland fell by 17% in the first half of this year. And that homicides fell from 35 in the first half of 2024 to 17 through June of this year. That decline, at 51%, was the largest decrease among 68 metro areas surveyed by the Major Cities Chiefs Association.” Effinger also reported that the current protests are confined to a two-block area in South Portland and include families and retirees exercising their freedom of speech. “The best advice we’ve heard,” says Effinger, “comes from Oregon Governor Tina Kotek and Portland Mayor Keith Wilson, who tell us not to give Trump exactly what he wants: footage on Fox News that features tear gas, Molotov cocktails, burning tires and green lasers.”

Storm Large, he adds, “puts a finer point on that advice,” suggesting Portlanders host “a welcoming ceremony for the National Guard with civic leaders, faith leaders and cheering crowds.” From a military family herself, Large maintains that Guard members are being used as pawns. “They’re not some bully arm of the federal government, but they’re being used as such, and it’s not cool,” she says. “We need to say, ‘We know why you’re here and we’re so sorry. You’re welcome here and we’ll look after you, but we don’t really need you.’” And, speaking of verbal judo, she adds: “If we do something that works — something simple, actionable and authentic — we could become a great model for other blue cities to do the same.”

Eighteen percent of the current total population of the United States is over 65. Each of us has learned in one way or another that the only thing divisive language accomplishes is division. Based on our experience, we have an important role to play in promoting the martial art of mind and mouth. Where there is fire, manifest lake.

This article appears in the Source October 23, 2025.