Idealist

Cultivo una rosa blanca en junio como enero para el amigo sincero que me da su mano franca. Y para el cruel que me arranca el corazón con que vivo, cardo ni ortiga cultivo; cultivo la rosa blanca.

por José Martí

I cultivate a white rose
In July as in January
For the sincere friend
Who gives me his hand frankly.

And for the cruel person who tears out
the heart with which I live,
I cultivate neither nettles nor thorns:
I cultivate a white rose.

José Martí's Rosa blanca and the White Rose student resistance (1942, Germany) bare a lot of similarities. Hans Scholl, Sophie Scholl, and Christoph Prost were executed by guillotine for "high treason" because they spoke up against the atrocities the Nazis were committing and stood by their convictions in court.

Martí fought in the Cuban revolution against Spain. In midst of battle he disobeyed orders to retreat, yelling: "a la carga!" riding his horse into enemy lines. Some think its a romanticized tale, but regardless, the idea of giving up your life for something you believe in has often been seen as stupid.

Yo quiero salir del mundo
por la puerta natural:
en un carro de hojas verdes
a morir me han de llevar.
No me pongan en lo oscuro a morir como un traidor:
yo soy bueno, y como bueno
moriré de cara al sol.

I wish to leave the world

• By its natural door;
  In my tomb of green leaves
  They are to carry me to die.
  Do not put me in the dark
  To die like a traitor;
  I am good, and like a good thing
  I will die with my face to the sun.
• A Morir [To Die] (1894) - J. Marti

To die facing the sun is what the students in the White Rose did. Standing up against what they believed to be wrong. Young people don't talk about revolutions anymore. They are busy texting, playing games in their cellphones, watching mindless TV shows to feel numb. Then I think the whole world could be rotting and we would prefer to continue entertaining ourselves.

DQ:Dost not see? A monstrous giant of infamous repute whom I intend to encounter.
SP: It's a windmill.
DQ : A giant. Canst thou not see the four great arms whirling at his back?
SP: A giant?
DQ: Exactly.

Idealists... where would we be without them?