The eagle with its keen eyes symbolized courage, strength and immortality, but is also considered “king of the skies” and messenger of the highest Gods. In ancient Rome, the eagle, or aquila, was the standard of a Roman legion. Each legion carried one eagle. Only problem is that the eagle has been repeatedly misused throughout history. The Nazi Eagle is a symbol developed originally by the Nazi Party in Germany in the 1920s (also becoming a symbol of the German government after the Nazis took power), based loosely on traditional German coats of arms. Following World War II, the symbol was appropriated by neo-Nazis and other white supremacists worldwide, with many variations. I fear that history will repeat itself within the United States in similar fashion unless we make the right steps. A bird that is unique to North America is the wild turkey. Benjamin Franklin preferred the Turkey to the Eagle in a 1784 letter addressed to Sarah, his daughter, Franklin wrote:

"For my own part I wish the bald eagle had not been chosen as the representative of our country. He is a bird of bad moral character. He does not get his living honestly. You may have seen him perched on some dead tree, where, too lazy to fish for himself, he watches the labour of the fishing hawk; and when that diligent bird has at length taken a fish, and is bearing it to his nest for the support of his mate and young ones, the bald eagle pursues him, and takes it from him. . . . the turkey is in comparison a much more respectable bird, and withal a true original native of America." 

Additionally, Theodore Roosevelt wrote in 1893: “The wild turkey is, in every way, the king of American game birds.” The Turkey is of course already associated with Thanksgiving, but the unsettling irony of Thanksgiving today is that Native Americans are still, by far, the most oppressed ethnic group in America. 

Time is of the essence and we must make these decisions for our children and for our freedom.