To all the Army and Navy service members coming to Baltimore this weekend — I hope you have the most incredible time.

I hope the Army-Navy game is memorable and spirited, with brass glinting in the sunshine as the cadets and midshipmen march onto the field at M&T Bank Stadium and into their seats. I hope the flyovers leave you as proud and breathless as a seesaw battle between the two biggest military academies in America’s Game.

Even more, I hope you get to see Baltimore hospitality up close and feel its warmth.

I hope you find the charm of our local cuisine, whether it is spots feted by the New York Times or a dive pub serving cheesy crab dip. I hope folks in town see you in your uniforms and stop you, thanking you for your service or maybe even telling you about their own run in the military. I hope you see our city’s spectacles in the Inner Harbor or on 34th Street and feel a splash of holiday warmth wash over you.

I hope you make great memories in Baltimore, and I hope you find yourselves surprised and delighted by your visit.

The people of this city are counting on it, because we might face darker days ahead if our own military is deployed against us.

For months, Baltimoreans have lived under the shadow of President Donald Trump’s administration threatening to send troops to our streets under the pretense of fighting crime. It’s a baseless justification for a senseless, bullying threat. It’s not something residents here want or need.

We’re getting along just fine. Please come and see.

Baltimore is enjoying an encouraging decline in violent crime. Although no city is without its struggles, I think you’ll find Charm City is a wonderful setting for a celebration of what brings the military together — not the forces tearing the country apart.

Lucas Scott, a fullback on the Ravens’ practice squad who played football for Army, admitted he didn’t know what to expect when he shipped into Baltimore. The upstate New York native was “shocked” by what he found, from his comfortable digs in Owings Mills to the beauty of the harbor.

Scott’s family and friends are coming in this weekend for the Army-Navy game, and as long as he isn’t traveling for the Ravens’ game in Cincinnati, he’s excited to show them around before their Saturday tailgate. His girlfriend just got a job in Millersville, so Baltimore is starting to feel like home.

“It should be cool to show them around the stadium, show them what Baltimore has,” he said. “Hopefully I have some friends and buddies back around here, so it should be a good weekend.”

There are times when Scott feels a little bit in “enemy” territory — just 45 minutes from Annapolis, Baltimore is, of course, a Navy-flavored town.

The city’s Fleet Week will have scores of folks standing on their rooftops, watching jet maneuvers blasting over our rowhomes. Our state’s elected governor is a military veteran who has been known to train with the Midshipmen football team on campus during the occasional morning.

But, when Scott has mentioned to people in town that he attended a service academy, more times than not he finds friendly support.

“I feel like they’re very cordial,” Scott said. “I think Baltimore people definitely have a really good understanding of the academy just from, you know, being so close to Annapolis, which is cool.”

What’s sad for service members is that they don’t get the same respect from the Trump administration leadership as they get from the folks in Baltimore.

In the best of times, the president treats the military like a child would treat their set of little green Army men, lining them up and down Pennsylvania Avenue for the special occasion of his own birthday. But Trump has also called military veterans “suckers” and “losers,” has attacked Gold Star families who made great sacrifices and mocked prisoners of war, saying he likes “people who weren’t captured.” His administration has slashed the Veterans Affairs workforce — which also happens to employ many veterans.

His cabinet staff is just as contemptuous of the department they ostensibly mean to lead. Pete Hegseth convened an unconventional meeting of his generals to cover many tedious topics, including whether he considered them too overweight. It’s clear Hegseth doesn’t respect women and people of color who serve, removing both from high-ranking positions in less than a year.

Hegseth’s crass reaction to allegations that he ordered a follow-up missile strike on people clinging to ship wreckage — including a vulgar rendering of children’s character Franklin the Turtle firing a rocket launcher — demonstrates why his most recent job before this one was merely to say provocative things on TV. He couldn’t even securely plan an airstrike without looping in a reporter on a Signal chat. In any normal time, his incompetence would be disqualifying for the power he wields.

I’m not naive. I know the military serves at the will of these people. When Trump and his lackeys appear on the big screen at the stadium, I expect a big cheer — just like last year at this game in Landover. Even if the administration deserves two thumbs down for its ham-fisted handling of military affairs, it is unlikely to hear disapproval Saturday.

But I hope that the cadets and servicepeople remember they also serve the common citizens, something that is lost in an era when the president views the military as his personal police force.

National Guard troops in D.C. have had so little to do that they’ve resorted to gardening work during months of deployment. If Trump carries out his threats to send troops to Baltimore, I suspect it would result in much of the same expensive, meaningless drudgery for those involved.

Please see the city and the people of Baltimore for what they are: well-meaning folks who are trying to get by. This is a place that welcomes its visitors, including the military, with open arms, but that is consistently painted by the Trump administration and his propagandists as some kind of hellhole.

It’s really, really not. People like it here. I think visitors will like it, too.

I think you’ll find Baltimore a great stage for a great event, a football game that reminds us that — while we maintain a friendly rivalry — it’s the singular mission of American prosperity and freedom that is the most important aspect of this annual tradition.

If you’re a member of the military who wants to enjoy yourself this weekend, Baltimore welcomes you. Please have a good time and remember that hospitality fondly. The military is made up of people who hail from communities under threat, including places like Baltimore, and we have much more to lose than the president does.

I hope, when you look at the people you meet this weekend, you see a neighbor — not a potential target.