Turkey of Liberty?

For the 4 people that read my blog: sorry I haven't written in awhile. I was just too afraid that I wouldn't be able to top the Bear blog. In a haze of cold medicine and a lack of sleep the following came to.

So being Veteran's Day recently and just having been around our nation's capital, I've been meditating on the symbols of our nation. Yesterday Kevin and I walked around DC, and visited the WWII memorial. It was a very honorable memorial. Part of the memorial involves ginormous eagles carrying laurel wreaths of olive branches -- you know, for peace. There are eagles everywhere throughout the Mall. And usually they look fierce, and a perhaps a little mean.

This led me to think, naturally... why can't our national symbol be something friendly and approachable, like a koala bear or a puppy? I can feel the recriminating statements rising from your throats -- don't worry, 2 seconds after saying this out loud to my husband, and receiving his laughter of ludicrosity, I realized how ridiculous that would be.

1) When you've got as much going as our country does internationally, it probably doesn't hurt to have a national symbol that looks like it would gladly peck your eyes out.
2) The eagle really is majestic kind of animal.
3) The koala bear? That animal is in no way indigenous to our large and spacious nation.

This did get me thinking -- in all of my rambling range of thoughts (remember, the cold medicine and lack of sleep), what would have happened if our forefathers had chosen the turkey as our national symbol instead of the bald eagle, as they were tempted to do? How do you make turkeys look fierce or respectable at the UN? And the real question behind this rambling is: for Thanksgiving would we eat bald eagles?

Happy Thanksgiving everybody!!