THE TINTINNABULATION* OF
BELLS, BELLS, BELLS
In the early 1700s the
bell was the primary instrument used to call people together
… gathering children for school
…assembling the congregation
…alerting citizens to danger
…announcing important news
…celebrating events
TGIM INDEPENDENCE DAY ACTION IDEA: In this
first-Monday-of-July-2013 TGIM I’m suggesting that this coming
Thursday we join the national effort to revive the tradition of –
Ringing bells on the Fourth of July.
Normally I encourage you to take some time in the course of your July 4 celebration to join me and actually read – perhaps even aloud, with some kids – and discuss the words and some specifics of the Declaration of Independence.
And I still do.
You’ll find an easy-on-the-eyes copy to print out here. And in that National Archives online neighborhood you’ll
also find authoritative background material and an add-your-signature document that gives me a bit of a thrill when I make my annual re-discovery
of it.
But this year I’m also suggesting that –
We make the holiday a
bell ringer.
As you may know, the Liberty Bell of Philadelphia fame is
engraved with the words –
“Proclaim LIBERTY
throughout all the Land
unto all the inhabitants thereof.”
This idea is central to an initiative spearheaded by No Greater Love, an American
humanitarian, non-profit organization founded in 1971. Other supporters range
across a wide spectrum including baseball teams, fire fighters, the National
Cartoonists Society, and Iron Workers and Sheet Metal Workers Unions along with
other AFL-CIO Affiliates.
Their stated purpose:
“To resurrect the American tradition of citizens
celebrating our freedom and marking of our freedom the 237th Anniversary of the
signing of the Declaration of Independence.
“Fifty years ago,” they
point out, “President John F. Kennedy
called for the ringing of bells every year on Independence Day, July 4th. We
forgot to keep this tradition going. Let's start it again!”
Sounds good to me.
Like the Fourth of July activities we’ve suggested in the past, bell-ringing
connects us to our forefathers by using the same instrument of freedom they
used to celebrate the founding of our nation to call our citizens together in
celebration of our freedom.
So here’s --
How to Participate: Ring a bell. Hand bells, cowbells, sleigh
bells, school bells, church bells, carillons, fire sirens, ship bells. If you don’t
have a bell, shake your keys or tap something on a glass to make it ring. It
doesn’t cost any money to participate.
When: July 4th at
2:00 p.m.
Where: Wherever you happen to be -- picnics, parades, boating,
sporting events, beach, shopping – as we said, wherever.
Want to ring the
actual Liberty Bell?
Well, you can’t.
It’s about that crack, among other issues.
 |
| We're guessing Mort Walker worked his National Cartoonists Society connections so Beetle Bailey could do what we can't. |
But in the spirit of
celebrating the Spirit of ’76, the National Parks Service, the current
caretaker of the Liberty Bell of legend, has the next best thing.
Proclaim LIBERTY.
Claim each of your unalienable rights.
Claim each of your unalienable rights.
As Dr. King reminded us in his “I have a dream” speech so
many years ago, “Now is the time to make real the promise of democracy.” Now is
always the time for “even though we face the difficulties of today and
tomorrow, I still have a dream.”
“… from every mountainside
let freedom ring."
Geoff Steck
Chief Catalyst
Alexander Publishing & Marketing
Chief Catalyst
Alexander Publishing & Marketing
P.S. Does
this ring a bell? *“Tintinnabulation” is the specific, lingering sound that
occurs after the bell has been struck. The word was invented by Edgar Allan Poe
and used in the first stanza of what has been characterized as his “last” poem:
The Bells. The bells of which he
wrote are thought to be those he heard from Fordham University's bell tower,
since Poe resided in the same Bronx neighborhood as that university. He also
frequently strolled about Fordham's campus.
 |
| First two pages of Poe's
handwritten manuscript for "The Bells", 1848 |
