For all We Know, There is Nobleness in the Bald Eagle's Characteristics

   I come to the defense of the American Bald Eagle, the national bird of the United States. Perhaps you know, or perhaps you haven't known, but there is strong argument that the bird isn't fit to represent our great nation.

   Was is Benjamin Franklin who said the Bald Eagle lacks morals?

   The thing is, the Bald Eagle steals its food from other predators. It'll swoop out of the sky and steal a fish right out of the beak of another bird, if it can.

   Oh, and the Bald Eagle backs down. Sometimes, smaller birds attack it, and it just turns and flees. Such a thing. How can we ever have a bird like this representing us?

   First, as I stand up for the Bald Eagle, I would remind you, it is one of the few monogamous members in all of the animal kingdom. Bald Eagles mate for life. Perhaps the only time they switch up, is when one of them dies. By this measurement, there may be no other member of the animal kingdom so moral as the Bald Eagle.

   Now, let's consider its stealing of food. We don't know why it does that, so we might be too quick coming to judgement. Perhaps, for all we know, it does not like to kill. It needs food, and has to get it, but prefers to take only as victims those that are already in the grasp of death. If that sounds like a stretch, I remind you the Bald Eagle displays more fidelity in its mating than most any other animal. It opens the suggestion, then, that it might just be a very moral bird.

   And, so it is with running from smaller birds when attacked. Pride would dictate you attack back. But, if you are stripped of pride, you might just say, "Forget this. I don't need to fight. If I fly away, neither one of us will be hurt, and I'll be just as well off."

   No, we don't know that that is why the Bald Eagle has been known to fly away when attacked by smaller birds. But, we don't know it isn't. I will tell you this, it would be a very noble thing, if an animal or a human were endowed with such a characteristic. Is it a trait of weakness? I only know there once walked a man on this earth who taught his followers to turn the other cheek.