It was news to me when I read this in the Minnesota Star Tribune:
Congress will consider, and may pass, a bill officially designating the bald eagle the United States’ national bird.“Wait — what?” Americans will say. “Hasn’t the bald eagle been the national bird since, like, the 18th century?”Many think so, including Minnesota’s Department of Natural Resources. But the bald eagle, although featured on the Great Seal of the United States and emblazoned on the country’s passports, currency, postage stamps and military uniforms, was never formally named the country’s avian representative.That could change thanks to the legislation, which was spearheaded by the National Eagle Center in Wabasha, Minn., an effort initiated by an avid Eagle Center supporter and collector who discovered the oversight and sought to make the bird’s role official.States have state birds (Minnesota’s is the loon, of course, since 1961). The United States has a national mammal, the bison, as well as a national flower, the rose, and tree, the oak. But no national bird.
Photo taken by me at the aforementioned National Eagle Center about 15 years ago.
You mean there’s still hope for the turkey to get this much needed recognition? Ben Franklin would be so pleased.
ReplyDeleteBen Franklin commented on the original eagle design for the Great Seal, saying that it looked more like a turkey. He wrote that the “Bald Eagle...is a Bird of bad moral Character. He does not get his Living honestly…[he] is too lazy to fish for himself.”
ReplyDeleteFranklin said that in comparison to the bald eagle, the turkey is “a much more respectable Bird, and withal a true original Native of America...He is besides, though a little vain & silly, a Bird of Courage.” So, Franklin did not propose the turkey become one of America’s most important symbols.
- paraphrased from https://fi.edu/en/science-and-education/benjamin-franklin/national-bird
Yet it's a federal crime to even pick up an Eagle feather from the ground but ok to sit around with other folks ripping a Turkey limb from limb.
DeletexoxoxoBruce
another lie my "teachers" told me
ReplyDelete