The Bald Eagle

Supposedly, Benjamin Franklin said of the Bald Eagle:

I wish that 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 labor of the fishing-hawk, and when that diligent bird has at length taken a fish, and is bearing it to its nest for the support of his mate and young ones, the bald eagle pursues him and takes it from him.

Assuming the said behavior is correct, and considering what has been built up through centuries of Western Civilization and what has been taken credit for on behalf of the “American experiment,” I find this bird quite fitting as a symbol. Quite fitting indeed!

H/T: Anthony Gregory