Bird Watching: Bald Eagle - Our National Symbol, 1 by linthicum

linthicum wrote:
Thanks, Murmur.

As we approach the Thanksgiving holiday, my thoughts, for a moment, turned to the historical background pertaining to the selection of the Bald Eagle as our national symbol. Had Ben Franklin had his way, it would have been the Wild Turkey. He characterized the Bald Eagle as, " a bird of bad moral character; he does not get his living honestly. You may have seen him perched in some dead tree where, too lazy to fish for himself, he watches the labor of the fishing hawk (Osprey) and, when that diligent bird has at length taken a fish and is bearing it to his nest for his young ones, the bald eagle pursues him and takes the fish. With all this injustice, he is never in good case." On the other hand, he saw the turkey as "a much more respectable bird and a true native of America." He conceded that the turkey was "a little vain and silly," but maintained that it was nevertheless a "bird of courage" that "would not hesitate to attack a grenadier of the British guards who should presume to invade his farm yard with a red coat on." Congress was not convinced, however, and the eagle remained our national symbol. Thank goodness ......

If the turkey had become our national symbol, would we still eat it on Thanksgiving Day ? It just wouldn't seem right to EAT our "National Symbol" on Thanksgiving Day, now, would it ?

Good ole' Ben Franklin must have gotten one too many shocks from his kite experiment !!!

This message was edited Nov 14, 2008 3:21 PM