Welcome to Poetically Yours. This segment highlights poets from northern Illinois. Today’s episode features Carol Obertubbesing.
Obertubbesing grew up in Union City, New Jersey and saw the New York skyline every day of her life until she left. In 1969, she became part of the first coed class at Princeton University. She said that was the defining event of her life.
The Princeton Alumni Weekly published an article she wrote about her experience as one of the first women to attend Princeton. She returned to Princeton almost every year for reunions and other events and now serves as Regional Vice President for the Class of 1973. In 2019, she organized a national conference held in Chicago to commemorate the 50th Anniversary of Undergraduate Coeducation at Princeton. Last year, the University gave her the Distinguished Service to Princeton Award.
Obertubbesing has served on the Board of the Woodstock Folk Festival since 1993 and has organized the festival’s virtual performances for the past few years.
She’s worked in public tv and radio. She was the director of Outreach at WGBH, and at PBS she was the associate director of the Elementary and Secondary Service. She said she is an avid listener of public radio. This poem is called “WHEN THE ABSURD BECOMES REAL.” Obertubbesing wrote this on the March 23 this year, which marked the 250th Anniversary of the day when Patrick Henry was said to have given his “Give Me Liberty or Give Me Death” speech. She sent this to WNIJ to use as a complement to this week’s Uncertainty Series.
The sun rose in the west today
The trout flew across the sky
The robin swam through the sea
I used to think “when pigs fly” was the sign of an optimist
But now this topsy-turvy world brings fear and despair
Where did my country go?
A land where those who help are fired
Where it is ok to allow children to die
Where peace means rewarding the aggressor
A place where science is discarded
Where journalists are silenced
Where protesters are sent to jail
A country where freedom of speech results in deportation
Where oligarchs are above the law
Where judges’ rulings are ignored
Once these were things that happened in other lands
Our country fought against them
Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness were not just for the privileged
Can this be our world?
Do we bow down to a king?
Does money triumph over law?
I say no!
Let us speak out and take action
If necessary, we must fight
Truth demands courage
Justice demands vigilance
Freedom demands resistance
