The Right to Live as Distinct Peoples

 Adapted from The United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples

 

Indigenous peoples have the collective right

To live as distinct peoples

And shall not be subjected to

Any act of genocide

Or other act of violence,

Including the forcible

Removal their children.

 

Indigenous peoples have the right

Not to be subjected to forced assimilation

Or the destruction of their culture.

 

States shall prevent

Any action that has the aim or effect

Of depriving them of their integrity

As distinct peoples,

Or of their cultural values

Or ethnic identities;

Or dispossessing them

Of their lands, territories, or resources;

Or any form of forced population transfer;

Or any form of forced assimilation or integration;

Or any form of propaganda

Designed to promote or incite

Racial or ethnic discrimination

Directed against them.

 

© by Nicholas Gordon

 

Audio and Video Music: Borderless. By Aakash Gandhi. Music free to use at YouTube.

 

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/theri4.html. For more poems for Indigenous Peoples Day, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/indigenouspeoplesdaypoems.html .

Yes, There Is a Lot One Need Atone for

 A poem for Yom Kippur about the need to atone for what you failed to do as much as for what you did:

 

Yes, there is a lot one need atone for.

One is in this pickle every year.

Maybe progress is too much to ask for,

Knowing how few angels live down here.

In fact, one must atone for what one didn't,

Perhaps as much or more than what one did.

Perhaps one's most egregious evil isn't

Understood till one lifts up the lid,

Revealing what one's life of privilege hid.

 

© by Nicholas Gordon

 

Audio and Video Music: Allégro. By Emmit Fenn. Music free to use at YouTube.

 

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/yesthe.html. For more poems for the Jewish High Holy Days, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/yomkippurpoems.html .