Listen to me… you ever notice how every time something go wrong down here, somebody quick to say, “Chile, the Feds gon’ step in now”? Mm-hmm. Like clockwork. Light bill high? Feds coming. Roads bad? Feds coming. Somebody cousin get a government job they ain’t qualified for? Lord, here come the Feds.

But let me tell you something… that sound just like them old stories where the boy keep crying wolf. After a while, you start to wonder if anybody even believe it anymore or if the wolf ever really had directions to reach here in the first place.

Because the truth is, we does call for them same Feds when things get rough. When storm mash up we house, when money short, when systems falling apart…we grateful, yes. Ain’t no shame in that. Help is help. You take the hand that steady when you trying not to fall.

But don’t confuse a helping hand with somebody taking over your whole kitchen.

You see, people love to talk like a takeover is some kind of magical fixing spell. Like overnight everything go straighten out, paperwork go move faster, and everybody go start behaving themselves. Baby, life don’t work so. You could bring in the whole choir, but if the house ain’t in order, all you doing is singing louder in the same confusion.

And at the same time, this the part people don’t like to sit with…we does get overlooked. Pushed to the side. Treated like we small-small, like we don’t matter unless something breaking or somebody need to make a speech. So how it is we expecting full attention only when things reach crisis?

You can’t be invisible and then expect spotlight on command. That ain’t how the world set up.

So now we stuck in this strange place, eh? Calling for help, but wary of control. Wanting support, but not replacement. Appreciating the benefits, but questioning the cost.

And you know what the old people say… “Every rope you grab, you must know who holding the other end.”

Because yes, the help does help. But full control? That is a different kind of story altogether.

Ain’t nothing new under the sun. We just telling it again in a different season.