A local politician said that Memphis has a history of taking lemons and making lemonade.

And yet, sometimes a lemon is just a lemon.

The National Guard deployment to Memphis is clearly a lemon because the decision has been accompanied by defaming comments made by Trump and even worse by politicians for whom Memphians are constituents.

There are some mildly hopeful indications that it just might become lemonade but it is too soon to tell. If reports about negotiations between the city, state, and federal governments are in fact taking place, it is a political master stroke for Memphis Mayor Paul Young in collaboration with Tennessee Governor Bill Lee.  But the best advice these days is wait and see.

Direct Hit

The fact is that the National Guard mobilization has the potential to have the most damaging national impact on Memphis since the murder of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in 1968.  A negative image of Memphis was projected to the entire nation.  There is even an argument that can be made that Memphis has still not fully recovered from that dark day in the city’s history.

It was a direct hit to the city’s brand, to the city’s economy, to the city’s unity, and to the city’s future.  Ultimately, the same may be applied to the mobilization of the National Guard into Memphis.

Here’s the thing: Memphis is a city on the edge, and it has no margin for error.  The president and his acolytes drag it through the political mud for their own self-aggrandizement and pursuit of power. 

Even more sadly is the fact that some Memphis business leaders were involved in the ultimate betrayal, traveling to Washington to urge our U.S. senators to push Trump to put Memphis in his talking points and to send in the Guard. 

Scenes from 1968 

Regardless of how this turns how, we should be outraged.  The idea of sending the American military against citizens is something the founders could never imagined when  they created a government structure with branches intended to guaranteed a leveling of power so that no single branch could dominate.  They could also never have foreseen that the legislative and judicial branches would act as enablers to the excesses of theexecutive branch.

So, here we are.  Soldiers on Memphis streets in Humvees – a replay of scenes from 1968.

There’s no misunderstanding about what this really is.  It’s Trump’s purpose in all things – political theater to create fear and intimidation backed by photos of soldiers with guns in city parks, downtowns, and neighborhoods.  Pop psychology suggests that after his parents sent him to military school to deal with behavioral issues like bullying and acting out, Trump’s been wanting to play general ever since and this is his chance.

From all reports, the collaboration between MPD and the FBI for almost two years has been fruitful. That makes sense since, unlike the National Guard, they are actually trained in law enforcement.  If Trump thinks people in uniform walking around Memphis neighborhoods is a deterrent, he could give the city the money to pay for more law officers to do it rather than making massive cuts to federal crimefighting programs.

Those who compliment Trump’s decision to send soldiers to Memphis should consider that there is a better way to have the same impact and should pause to consider the potential long-term harm to the city.  No one who cares about Memphis should accept a Faustian bargain in which they ignore the long-term damage to Memphis in return for a short-term political gratuity for the far right in a short-term deployment of National Guard.

Trash Talk about Memphis

Governor Bill Lee has been quoted as saying there will be 150 Guard members sent to Memphis.  Actually, Memphis itself has more than 150 members of the Guard living in it, but it’s likely that the Guard members deployed to the city will come from outside Memphis (more than 10,000 Tennesseans are in the state’s National Guard).

However, if the governor limits National Guard members to 150, he may have done Memphis the biggest favor of all since unlike Washington and Los Angeles, we will not be swamped by the military.  There are 2,400 National Guard soldiers and airmen in Washington, D.C., and 4,000 of Guard members – plus 400 active duty Marines – in Los Angeles.

Meanwhile, Republican candidates to succeed Lee as governor can’t get enough of trashing Memphis and overstating the impact of the National Guard.  Crazed right wing state representative Monty Fritts apparently is incredibly camped out to the right of Senator Marshal Blackburn.  He said Memphis elected officials “favor the foreigner over the citizen” and calls for guns everywhere, even in parks.  It’s a typically vacuous comment by him since only 5.4% of Memphis residents are foreign born and Memphis is not even in the top 100 cities with the largest percentage of foreign born residents.  

True to her “damn the facts” approach by Blackburn, she says “left-wing officials have given violent criminals and repeat offenders free rein in Memphis” without any data to back up her “own the libs” fulminations.  She is so prolific in her exhausting rhetoric and so quick to post it online that it gives the impression that she thinks that if she can become governor, she’ll continue to do little except stay on social media all day.

Guns, Guns, and More Guns

All of the gubernatorial candidates think guns are the answer while city and county law enforcement officials here tell them the proliferation of guns caused by their “guns everywhere” policy is a major factor in driving up the crime rate in Memphis. Of course none of them are willing to listen to professionals and on-the-ground experts, especially when they offer clear proof, and instead parrot their fact-free talking points.

 With a modicum of research, they might learn that cities outside Tennessee have reduced crime but not when one political party is determined to throw gas on the fire. However, when we point to these more strategic community-based strategies to reduce crime, they default to their smear that we are soft on crime.

If they were actually willing to listen, they might have heard Attorney General Steve Mulroy: “We should welcome federal help but it should be the right kind of help.  I prefer it to be entirely federal law enforcement agents trained in civilian law enforcement, not military troops who aren’t.”

His preference appears to be shaping up.  In addition to the projected 150 National Guard members, Memphis is to get three times than many from other federal agencies where they were trained for the duties they will get in the city.

But 150 Guard members may be enough to allow Trump to boast about the spectacle of the military on the streets of a Tennessee city.  Not be outdone, “ICE Barbie” Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem with her cosplaying may show up in full makeup, styled hair, and special pretend uniform.

This is Not Justice

As Dr. King said, “true peace is not merely the absence of tension, it is the presence of justice” and “Any law that uplifts human personality is just.  Any law that degrades human personality is unjust.”

We all know on which side of the equation Trump rests.  What’s most disturbing is that injustice is at its core and corruption is its operating principle.  The recent personal enrichment scam that allows the United Arab Emirates to have hundreds and thousands of the world’s most advanced and scarce American computer chips in return for the U.A.E. pumping $2 billion into the Trump family’s crypto business is merely the latest grift.

It’s enough to make the Teapot Dome scandal in which the Harding Administration accepted bribes from oil tycoons in exchange for exclusive drilling rights look like child’s play. It’s no surprise that Blackburn, despite touting her law and order bona fides,  Blackburn hasn’t uttered a word about this crime, preferring instead to question the leadership qualities of Memphis officials.

As Neil Young sings: “There’s big crime in DC at the White House.” Meanwhile, Blackburn and the other Trump sycophants say: Don’t look there, look at Memphis.

There are those who try to paint a rosy picture for Memphis when the National Guard leaves, suggesting that Trump will say that because of him, Memphis is now the safest city in the country.  It’s the height of wishful thinking and naivete to pin any of our hopes for the future on a man who only thinks about himself.

To quote Dr. King again, he famously said “the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.” 

For the good of America, it needs to bend soon before even more of our fundamental institutions are destroyed, before more scientific facts are deleted from government databases, before the right of free speech is eroded even more, before more health and economic policies that help average Americans are eliminated, before more foreign policy is made irrational.  

We will cling to the notion that Memphis can make lemonade out of the lemon headed to its city. 

In the end, however, the prevailing question these days is not whether Memphis can take lemons and make lemonade, but if America can make lemonade in the future as it tries to revive its founding principles and anchor institutions.

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