Rep. Miller’s National Guard ploy is divisive, political and dangerous: Op-Ed

Cleveland is a wonderful, complicated city known for its resilient community, passion for sports (win or lose), Lake Erie, orchestra and Bone Thugs-N-Harmony, but Congressman Max Miller is trying to destroy our town and its image for political ends. His call to deploy members of the U.S. military in Cleveland — a city he doesn’t even represent — is unwelcome, divisive and dangerous. There are some clear steps we can take to attack crime, but deploying the National Guard on our own people is not one.

If we really want to reduce crime, we have to understand why it happens. It won’t be fixed through a show of force. Instead, we have to invest in our communities. And we know what to do: ensure everyone who works can earn a living wage and exercise their rights in the workplace; fairly fund our education system; and invest in affordable healthcare, transportation and housing. These are things that reduce poverty; expand opportunity; allow us to work, be healthy and take care of our families; and ensure everyone has an equal chance to succeed. 

I’m in Cleveland every day and I can tell you, no one is afraid to go to a Guardians game. No one is afraid to go to a Browns game. At least — not until they start to see tanks and soldiers with guns on every street corner. Attendance is high at both stadiums, and the streets are alive at night. But if downtown becomes a military zone, people will stay home. And the harm to local businesses, tax revenue and the entire region will rest with Congressman Miller and his political stunt.

Calling for the deployment of the National Guard in Cleveland is a political stunt designed to earn Rep. Miller headlines, and further fracture a country that is sorely in need of coming together. In 1970, we saw what happened when the Guard was used against protestors at Kent State University. Four students were killed. This time, with the racism underneath the rhetoric about “crime” and “fear of the city,” we are under no illusion about who will be targeted and harmed. We need leaders who will bring us together, not ones that want us to tear each other apart. 

Of course there is crime in Cleveland that needs to be addressed. There’s also crime in Wooster and Parma, cities Rep. Miller might want to focus on, since he actually represents them. There is crime in every city, town and rural area of Ohio, although some of the crime that happens in rural and suburban communities doesn’t get labeled as such. It doesn’t help to ignore the truth about crime, and it certainly doesn’t help to propose false “solutions.” 

For example, violence against women, children and the elderly is more prevalent in rural America than the inner city. Most mass shootings at schools take place in small towns and suburbs. Suicide is also more common in rural America than inner cities. Why isn’t Rep. Miller concerned about these facts, which hit much closer to home? The truth is, this country is filled with hurt people who hurt other people. That’s not a city problem — it’s an us problem. We have prioritized productivity over everything else, to the detriment of our mental and physical health. 

Even people with enormous privilege are suffering. They are told that they don’t have the right to feel what they feel because they have privilege, and that makes them angry. But lashing out at people who aren’t like you is not a solution. Looking for someone to blame is not a solution. Deploying the National Guard on Cleveland is not it, either. 

We have to stop seeing other people as our enemies. People who are different from you are not bad because they are different, and other people are not to blame for your problems. Extreme acts of force, like the one Rep. Miller is proposing, further divide us. What we really need to do is to come together and work to be one as a people, a region, and a nation. See what we have in common, instead of our differences. 

That’s why Rep. Miller’s call for deploying the National Guard in Cleveland is so dangerous. It further divides us as people, and puts Clevelanders at risk of more violence — this time, at the hands of the state. His is not a solution to crime; it’s more polarization. We have had enough. The only way forward is together. 

Lynn Tramonte is Executive Director of the Ohio Immigrant Alliance.