O Captain! My Captain!

pixlr_20180420091809675.jpgO Captain my Captain! our fearful trip is done,
The ship has weather’d every rack, the prize we sought is won,
The port is near, the bells I hear, the people all exulting,
While follow eyes the steady keel, the vessel grim and daring;
        But O heart! heart! heart!
        O the bleeding drops of red,
        Where on the deck my Captain lies,
         Fallen cold and dead.
O Captain! my Captain! rise up and hear the bells;
Rise up—for you the flag is flung—for you the bugle trills,
For you bouquets and ribbon’d wreaths—for you the shores a-crowding,
For you they call, the swaying mass, their eager faces turning;
           Here Captain! dear father!
            This arm beneath your head!
            It is some dream that on the deck,
            You’ve fallen cold and dead.
My Captain does not answer, his lips are pale and still,
My father does not feel my arm, he has no pulse nor will,
The ship is anchor’d safe and sound, its voyage closed and done,
From fearful trip the victor ship comes in with object won;
     Exult O shores, and ring O bells!
     But I with mournful tread,
     Walk the deck my Captain lies,
      Fallen cold and dead.
By WALT WHITMAN
Source: Leaves of Grass (David McKay, 1891)

There is a judge in Berlin

As much as one can not like Mr Puigdemont very much, that one orchestrated in Spain against Catalunya indipendentist is a judicial persecution.  Wisely enough, they had withdrawn their request of extradition while Puigdemont and company were in Belgium but now they tried again in Germany, probably counting on political linkages and support.

They were wrong.  There is a judge in Berlin and he said what anybody could have confirmed: the independence movement in Catalunya could be wrong, could have broken some laws and regulations, might have not respected the will and right of many Catalan citizens but was indeed a political process publicly presented to the citizenship and public opinion from the beginning and having got a majority of votes in the local Parliament.  And, probably the most important, did not use violence.  Let’s hope that could continue.