Local campaign group Orkney Resists will be holding a Picnic of Resistance to mark the visit of President of the US Donald Trump to the UK.

The event will be on Friday 13th of July from 7pm outside St Magnus Cathedral. You can keep up with what is being organised on their Facebook events page.

“This picnic on the green in front of the Cathedral is an opportunity for people to come together to express solidarity with the migrant families being separated by Trump’s policies and everyone in the USA and the world who oppose the politics of fear and hatred. We can only build a better place to live, in Orkney, Scotland, the UK, the USA and the world on the basis of hope.”

Contributor to the Orkney News Bernie Bell has also sent in her views of the US President.

Trump, Trump, Trump by Bernie Bell

When I first was aware of Trump standing for President, I thought it was ludicrous, then I remembered Ronald Reagan, and Jimmy Carter. Carter, I think, was just dim. Dim is dangerous, in a person who is running a big, powerful country, but he didn’t seem as worrying as Reagan. Reagan, was….more than dim – profoundly stupid, living in a total cuckoo-land, no real grip on world events, or even, in some cases, where various countries in the world, were! Yet he was voted in, democratically,  and was President, for quite a long time.  I realised that if a nation can vote in Ronald Reagan, they can vote in….anyone!

He had been in the movies, usually playing what could be seen as a strong, authoritarian figure. That was the impression of him in the minds of the American public.  An ‘all-right guy’, someone who stood up for ‘what’s right’ etc. etc. That this was mostly based on the fantasy figure he’d play in the movies, didn’t seem to count.  Or that he appeared to be firmly under his wife’s thumb!

And now, we have Trump, as his election campaign succeeded, and he is, still unbelievably, President of the United States of America. He also can be seen to  represent an authoritarian figure – someone who can take charge and sort things out.  That’s the hype – that’s the impression he tries to get across.

And yes, authoritarian people, like to vote for authoritarian people. Bullies like bullies.  They don’t like to be bullied by them, but they like the idea, that they will bully the people that they also don’t like. They like to stick together, and buy each other drinks and clap each other on the back and tell each other what good guys they are, and how they’ll stand together, against the ‘others’.  This works, until one of them is actually in power, and attempts to tell the other bullies what to do, then the flaw comes in…….the authoritarians, like to band together, but don’t actually like to be pushed around by anyone. They like to do the pushing around.

The authoritarian figure is important  to the authoritarian voters, when they consider the threat of terrorism. This is interesting, as, of course, the terrorists are an example of…..authoritarianism.  The current lot, in the East, are a prize example of that.  Da’esh are a wonderful example of what must be the most authoritarian way of being, you can imagine.  The thing is, once this kind of thing gets going, there are too many bullies, trying to do the bullying, and, often, it then collapses.

We may feel that we’re outside it, but the down side of how the world has shrunk in recent decades, is….that no-one is outside it.  Though the world has shrunk in actual accessibility, they want us to feel fearful of moving about in that world. What they’re hoping for, is to make us all fear-full, and stay put, and so, become more insular. Well, I suppose that’s one of the things they’re hoping for. Fact is, it beats me what they really are hoping for.  Bunch of head-cases, but dangerous head-cases, un-fortunately.

It has happened before, and will probably happen again, until we change in some way as a species. Is that likely to happen? Who knows, we don’t show much sign of changing – we’ve been like this for a very long time.

Personally, I don’t see how………. the head-cases, can be sustainable. That kind of madness, rises up, is very worrying, does a lot of damage, then collapses again. Look back through history, time and again……a head-case, leads head-cases in a completely in-human ….crusade of some kind, and then……..it all changes.  Time and time again.

And meanwhile, we have to live through it, and get on with our lives, and try to carry some of what we have, through the times of madness, if we can.

Trump is worrying, that whole way of being, is worrying, but it doesn’t usually last for very long, it’s not sustainable. I know, it’s very hard for those living through it.  When the mass migration of refugees from the East started to become apparent in Europe,  it reminded me of when all those people were trying to flee Nazi Germany. There’s another example of the bully boys getting on, then not getting on – Hitler and Mussolini.  A terrible time, yet it ended, the bully boys collapsed.

Trump was elected.  We really are such very strange creatures, we humans.  In our fear, we look to someone who lives by fear. In our fear of ‘terrorism’, we want to give power to another form of terrorism, and  don’t see that  this is what’s happening.

Trumps most recent bully-boy tactic was to separate families and place children in cages – until enough people kicked up about it ( thank God for people who are prepared to kick up about things). Then he, at least, lets the families stay together while in ‘detention’.  What is this, if not bully-boy tactics and terrorism?  .

It’s similar, here in Britain – folk don’t see that the anti-terrorism laws, terrorize us and limit our freedom, more than the actual activities of the terrorists, do.  That’s what they’re looking to do – limit us and limit our lives, and they succeed, when the anti-terrorism laws mean that our freedom is restricted!  Non-sense, all round.

Trump is there, in power, taking these actions, but he, hopefully, won’t last long. I honestly believe that Da’esh is/are not sustainable.  What is deeply worrying, is that whole nations, are prepared to follow these people, through fear – that terrible, terrible thing, which causes so much harm.  It’s what’s behind  it all – behind  bullying, behind terrorism, behind it all – FEAR. Lose the fear, and maybe humanity can step out into the light.

Maybe.

Having said all that, I’ll add…..I don’t see Trump as being stupid, far from it. Un-fortunately, he’s very clever – a  clever mad-man. I suppose it’s a lot to expect, for folk to pay a lot of attention to a madman across the water – until his behaviour has repercussions which are right on our doorstep. Does that sound familiar?

Kirkwall Protest Against Trump Muslim Ban (A. Laird)