I have visited the link you sent to me and I can only imagine how it was to see live some crucial parts of history and Whitman’s life! I also think that the concluding quotation in my post is a beautiful summary of everlasting Whitman’s ideas.
Thank you for your recommendation. I look forward to exploring another aspect of Whitman’s genius.

At times, being a non-native speaker makes reading poetry more difficult and time-consuming, however, I agree with you that it is also an advantage for it forces us to pay more attention to words trying to grasp the right meaning. Even though, the word “comrade” seems more or less very clear and self-explicable, it has caught my attention exactly because of this military resonance, and all the tension formulated when contrasting that aspect with the more obvious connotation- a companion or intimate friend, as I wrote in my post. Certainly, my being aware of this not so obvious military connotation of the word has to do with the history and influences of communism on the development of culture and society of this region. Thank you for sharing your thoughts with me.

Reasons for unity

This is the link:
http://techwhit.lookingforwhitman.org/2009/12/02/another-look-at-fort-greene/

The quote at the end of your post encompasses all the reasons why people love Whitman. He writing is transcends American culture. Despite that fact that his writing is probably written for the American audience, his ideals are widely accepted. I also recommend his novel Franklin Evans if have time to read it. Whitman published the novel and then denied writing it. Many people till this day didn’t know Whitman wrote a novel and are surprised by the content.

This excellent post really made me think in a fresh way about Whitman’s word– it’s funny that as a native English speaker I gloss too easily over the word “comrade”/”camarado” and just think of the definition you list as 2a above, an intimate friend with shared experience. But really the resonance of the military and of obedience that you write about is a rich tension in the word. It implies something about the possible difficulties this pair or group will face as they forge their new society, and the intensity of loyalty and shared commitment that will be required of them, despite Whitman’s optimism. Though of course Whitman would not have known about communism, I am curious about how that meaning affects readers there– probably much more powerfully than for me and my students here in Virginia, I think.