If you’re like me, a lover of roast turkey at Thanksgiving and the holidays, this is a good time to reflect on the turkey’s proud heritage. You might be surprised to know that one of our founding fathers, Benjamin Franklin, gave a lot of thought to that bird and its future role in America. He believed that the turkey, not the bald eagle, should be the national bird. He also thought that we should plaster pictures of the turkey on our coin and bills, giving the turkey place of honor.
In a recent New Yorker article by Adam Gopnik, the writer reveals some highly fascinating ideas about Franklin and the symbolism of birds, specifically the turkey and the bald eagle. The turkey, I learned from Adam Gopnik’s article, is the Meleagris gallopavo and in the 18th century the most local of birds. Indeed, we slammed on the brakes just Wednesday before Thanksgiving to avoid plastering a wild turkey across the pavement in Wellesley, Massachusetts.
But it was a glorious moment in the 1780’s when Benjamin Franklin argued that the turkey should be the national bird, not the bald eagle. Gopnik explains that Franklin’s ideas are not a “finger-on-the-nose bit of Old Ben playfulness.” Franklin, like Warren Buffett, didn’t believe that there should be hereditary legacies in American life. And he used the turkey and the eagle to make his point.
Ben Franklin’s two-bird theory:
Franklin sorted economic philosophy between the turkey and the eagle. His economic point was that though the eagle was classy looking, it made its living by feeding on the helpless. To him, the eagle was reflective of old Europe, its class structure and its inequities.
A couple years ago while fishing with my youngest grandson, Henry, we watched the gulls grab the dead minnows we tossed out. Suddenly out of the blue sky swooped a huge bald eagle, taking the minnow from one gull while in mid-flight. My grandson had it right: “That eagle is a mean bird,” he commented. He stole from the pathetic gull—and the gull flew away in fear. (Bald eagle-lovers will claim that this libels eagles. But. . . what would you expect from eagle-lovers?)
For Franklin, Henry's comment about the eagle is spot on. Admittedly, the turkey has an easily distracted mind and artificially swelled breast. But Franklin knew that though the turkey might be silly and vain, it shares the feed with the other birds in the yard. It’s a hard worker, disciplined and it follows the rules. And, like a lot of barnyard birds, it’s quite willing—eventually--to give hell to anyone who tries to make trouble.
In Franklin’s world of symbol-building, the national bird question was just one instance of the issues of freedom. He believed that people who work hard and play by the rules should have a fair shot at prosperity. He also rejected the notion that self-indulgence and genetics should be rewarded.
That wise Republican, David Brooks, summarizes the conflicts of the turkey and the eagle best. He asks which values will be rewarded and reinforced? The choices are effort and self-discipline. Or, bad governance and rigged systems?
It strikes me that Franklin’s thinking about the turkey and the eagle is even more relevant today than in the 18th century.
Hope your Thanksgiving was as enjoyable as mine, and that you prefer turkey.