[an error occurred while processing this directive]

LATEST SUBMISSIONS

Bald eagle: symbol of our time

Tuesday, September 11 at 6:03 PM

This Speakout has not been edited.

By Marsha J. Perlman

After seven years of monitoring the habits of eagle families in Florida, I question our choice of national symbol.

The eagles are proud and majestic. Their brown-black bodies, accentuated with snow-white head and tail feathers, and golden beaks, are sleek and elegant soaring against a cloudless blue sky. They are admired for their strength, family structure, and parenting skills. Their nests, interwoven twigs and branches at treetops, weigh up to 1,000 pounds, and are readily apparent to the naked eye.

In the winter and spring, I visit three eagles’ nests. I continue to follow the birds’ life cycles- mating, sitting, feeding, communicating, educating, and vacating. I chuckle when I observe awkward eaglets flapping their wings, bouncing, and getting ready for their first flights. I listen for loud discordant clicks tossed from a sitting adult when it is greeting its mate returning with dinner.

After observing these birds for many years, my admiration has waned. The eagle is dirty, lazy, and idle. It waits for handouts or steals what it wants. I read that eagles eat fish. I have lived on a canal for seven years without seeing an eagle catch one from the water. However, when I spot an osprey fishing from the attic of his tree, I also witness one or two eagles close behind with keen yellow eyes monitoring his labor. As soon as the industrious bird seizes its catch and flies toward home, the stronger, larger, powerful eagles go on the offensive. They pursue and attack the smaller bird by flying on their backs leading with sharp talons. Finally, the osprey drops the fish in self-defense to prevent decimation. One intimidating thief swipes it in mid-air and they fly away.

These large birds also eat carrion, satiate their hunger on blood and guts, and then transport pieces to their family. Eagles that live close to canals perch on tall limbs waiting for boat engines to shut down. They boldly swoop and grab a fish as the anglers clean their catch. One day at a county landfill, I observed an adult teaching her eaglet to attack a herring gull caught in a plastic bag and no longer able to fly.

What does it say about a nation when its national symbol: steals what belongs to others, wallows in death and blood, is opportunistic, attacks the innocent, preys on the weak, in addition, perpetuates these odious skills to the next generation?

It is time to examine what we are as a nation, and the manner in which we personify ourselves to the world. Are we conscious of the messages we are disseminating, and do we care? A symbol is a country’s emblem, appearing on all official communications.

Do we want the eagle to be the symbol for the United States of America?

Marsha J. Perlman is a resident of Boulder.

READER COMMENTS

I want those 5 minutes back.... what a pantload.

Dirty, lazy and idle.....darnit, they must be democrats.

Posted by Dravur on September 21, 2007 11:16 PM