Ode to Safeguards
by Joanna Levitt

Why do safeguard policies matter, you ask?
You want to know why so many people across Asia are calling out
protesting this roll-back of hard-won policy protections?
Taking a stand to demand that we guard
the safety
of their rights
and environments?

Because they know the Earth aches
They can feel it.

They know that so few people remember how to live in balance upon her.
And the few who do are actively threatened.
The inequality, injustice, imbalance builds upon itself
Until the sky itself groans
It cannot bear it
It cannot hold on to its age-old patterns of seasons, rains, winds, currents
The climate changes, slowly but surely
And the sky fears that these unknown changes will hit hardest among those who can least afford it.

Ceaseless demand in the North and the teaming centers
causes endless gaping wounds in the South and quiet fringes
The Earth's lifeblood and bones, her oil, water, minerals and forests
are extracted and pillaged
Her beloved inhabitants who live closest to her with humility and care,
are displaced, dispossessed, dispersed, disintegrated.

Today money travels with the speed of light
from an ivory tower investment account
to a distant corner of resource-rich earth
to fund its stripping and depletion
in the name of Development

But how slowly the voice of protest travels
of a farmer on that plot
of an indigenous woman
a child
an elder council
a neighborhood association
anyone who cries out:
"We do not want this.
You cannot force this upon us.
This is not what "development" ever meant to us, or ever will.
This is our land, our soul, our history, our future.
This is not just."

In the face of such forces
At this tipping-point time on our earth
Each tool we have won, each chance we have built
for healing and restoring balance
Must be cherished
Must be strengthened
Must be given life by the full backing of our collective wills and resources

To undo any such tool, at this time of breathtaking need on our earth
Is to condone harm to faraway families and plots of earth
It is also turning your back on your own, not just your grandchild but your self
You too have a birthright
to live on a healthy planet
to benefit from all the knowledge and knowings
of our planet's incredible array of peoples and places
To know that your own resources and convenience
do not come at the cost of others' death and dispossession

In the set of tools we need
To make a turn at this time of tipping
Safeguards are a simple—but vital—tool in this set
Or perhaps a keystone for the floor of what we are building
That ensures we shall do our utmost
To do no harm
—which, as we all know in our bones, is the bare minimum that we owe
to those with whom we share this planet.
We aspire to move far beyond this, beyond do-no-harm,
to opportunity and well-being for all

But this is a start,
this safeguard stone,
quarried from our long struggles for voice, land and livelihood.

Do not crack or file down or remove this stone in our floor
We are working hard
to build a house
for all of us
You shall not topple it

Instead,
Join us

There is work to do
For all who have come to build.

The sky knows it is not too late.