A Freedom Bell
Anyway, while reading the program notes, I marked something to share with you Impromptus-ites. (By the way, if you wish to read my New York Sun review of this particular concert, please go here.) This is what I read: The new bells of the Frauenkirche
peal forth with a message that must touch the hearts of all who hear them. Yet for the members of the New York Philharmonic, the largest bell, Jesaia (Isaiah), sings an especially poignant song. Dubbed the Peace Bell, it bears an image of the World Trade Center towers collapsing on September 11, 2001, accompanied by the words from the Book of Isaiah (II, 4): “Sie werden ihre Schwerter zu Pflugscharen machen” (“They will beat their swords into plowshares”).
Fine, fine, great, great. But there is some sword-wielding still to do, I’m afraid, on account of September 11 and all that motivated it and all that would trigger additional such atrocities.
Count me as one New Yorker (adoptive) who would be slightly more interested in a Self-Defense or Freedom Bell.
The obvious inscription for the Freedom bell would be:
Macht aus euren Pflugscharen Schwerter und aus euren Sicheln Spieße! der Schwache spreche: Ich bin stark! (Joel 3:10, Luther Bibel 1545)
That is:
Beat your plowshares into swords and your pruning hooks into spears. Let the weakling say, “I am strong!” (Joel 3:10, NIV)