On Thanksgiving, just give me the bird

Alfred Biddlecomb
Published: November 27, 2008

“For my own part I wish the Bald Eagle had not been chosen 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 near the River, where, too lazy to fish for himself, he watches the Labour of the Fishing Hawk…”

— Benjamin Franklin, in a letter to his daughter in 1784.

Benjamin Franklin had one of the most brilliant minds of his day and was right about many things during the early years of this nation. He was right about war with Britain, the compromise that formed the
Constitution and the need to abolish slavery. America always benefited when it listened to Franklin.

It’s a good thing for us that Franklin never shared his views on the bald eagle publically. The intimate letter quoted above is pretty much the only stance Franklin took in advocating the turkey to be our
national symbol. He didn’t lobby Congress (he was in France when the Great Seal was adopted) and he didn’t push the issue when debating our Constitution in Philadelphia a few years later.

Ben Franklin’s inaction on the topic probably saved Thanksgiving as we know it today.

Think about it. Had Franklin prevailed on the issue, the wild turkey would be enjoying all the rights and privileges now bestowed upon the bald eagle. Hunting wild turkeys would be prohibited by federal
law. Turkey farms would not exist. These portly creatures would then be free to mock us as they take their time crossing the highway in front of our cars. Those are some perks.

Most of all, we wouldn’t have turkey on Thanksgiving. Sure, there would be football, parades and family gatherings. But the only turkey at the table would be that same old relative who raids your liquor
cabinet and talks with a mouth full of mashed potatoes while screaming at the TV for the Cowboys to go for it on fourth down.

Had Franklin pushed his case, what would we be eating tomorrow?

The Pilgrims feasted in Plymouth, but didn’t necessarily dine on turkey. According to Edward Winslow’s journal of the alleged first Thanksgiving, his fellow settlers went out and hunted all the “foul” they
could carry.

Since this was Massachusetts, I’m confident this included ducks and geese—not a bad dish. The Pilgrims’ watchful neighbor, Massasoit, pitched in by having his men bring in five freshly killed deer,
though suspicion has it one of the deer was struck by a car on the way to Winslow’s house that evening.

There may be some mention of turkey, but I’ve never seen it. It might have to do with the fact that a wild turkey is a tough bird to kill. I know, I’ve tried. It flies with surprising speed between trees in heavily
wooded areas and has excellent eyesight. Why should the Pilgrims have wasted valuable gun powder on the elusive turkey when ducks and geese were so plentiful along the shoreline.

Perhaps Thanksgiving could have been built around our (unofficial) national dish — chicken. That wouldn’t be special, since most of us have chicken on Sundays after church.

There’s always deer — aka venison. A deer, however, doesn’t offer the visual quality of a Thanksgiving turkey. A deer looks good strapped to the tailgate of your truck, but not so good spread across the
dining room table.

Then again, maybe we concentrate too much on the feast and too little on giving thanks. For that, I can reference the true FIRST Thanksgiving here in Virginia. More than a year before the Pilgrims went
on their wild goose chase in search of a Thanksgiving feast, newly arrived settlers on the banks of the James River gave thanks for their save passage to the New World from Berkeley Parish, England.

Capt. John Woodlief led his newly-arrived English colonists, who dropped to their knees to pray in thanks for a safe arrival on Dec. 4, 1619. Together they vowed:

“Wee ordaine that the day of our ships arrival at the place assigned for plantacon in the land of Virginia shall be yearly and perpetually keept holy as a day of Thanksgiving to Almighty God.”

What was on the table that night was not important. Being Virginia, they could have dined on geese, deer and those great Chesapeake Bay oysters. What is important, is they gave thanks.

That’s something we should all remember on this Thanksgiving. Regardless of how rough the past 12 months have been or how bleak the future may look, we all have no shortage of things for which we
are thankful. That will always be true, regardless of whether we feast on turkey, oysters, ham or Slim Jims.

Alfred Biddlecomb is the former editorial page editor for the Potomac News and the Manassas Journal Messenger.