On the eve of Christmas, the White House revealed that President Joe Biden had put his signature upon a legislation thereby officially classifying the bald eagle as the national bird. The action—an endorsement of a bill that breezed through Congress without a single member uttering a whisper of opposition—is a formal amendment to Title 36 in the extensive span of the U.S. Code. It places the noble raptor, recognized widely for its predatory demeanour, amidst the prized roster of national symbols. Such an honorific gesture, unanimous as it has been in the Congress, seems less than groundbreaking.
Indeed, in the extensive annals of American history, the bald eagle has held longstanding significance. It’s been gracing the Great Seal of the United States since the distant times of 1782, celebrating its own distinct holiday, and even finding refuge under dedicated government protection legislation. Yet, the bird was never officially ‘crowned’ with the descriptive label of being the national bird. Somehow, it was essentially overlooked and left without an explicit ‘national bird’ status in the letter of the law.
This might seem to be a mere technicality, but it nonetheless paints a picture of governmental oversight. It exemplifies how bureaucracy skipped over achieving completeness or perhaps even correctness in designations, given the fact that the bald eagle was already conferred with status as the national emblem by the U.S. Congress in the same year it debuted on the nation’s Great Seal, according to official sources from USA.gov.
The prominence of the bald eagle extends beyond its towering perch on the Great Seal. Its majestic figure often dominates official documents, underscores the presidency through the official flag, and sets a powerful stance in military insignias. Yet, despite such overwhelming presence and symbolical weight, the spectral emptiness in its designation left a small but noticeable void in the national identity, until this recent revision.
An erringly misleading statement previously posted on the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs’ official website, VA.gov, had incorrectly identified the bird as the national bird. This erroneous assumption only underscores how tentatively the corners of bureaucratic logic tend to hold. It’s all the more compelling when the same government—now seen catching up on an oversight from centuries ago—stumbles to maintain accuracy in smaller details.
The final act of sealing the bald eagle’s official avian status was grudgingly handed over to Biden. The statement the White House released on Tuesday, in the aftermath of signing the certainty into the bill, was a dismal chorus blaming other parties: Senators Klobuchar, Lummis, Mullin, and Smith, and Representatives Finstad, Craig, and Emmer.
This attempt at diffusing the already scant attention it captured underlines the administration’s seemingly lackadaisical attitude. Instead of seizing the moment and addressing this lapse in history with deserved gravitas, they chose to casually distribute this underwhelming announcement like a gesture barely worth noting.
Biden’s administration and their lack of enthusiasm in highlighting their resolution of this symbolic oversight tells quite a tale. It’s a glimpse into an administration that shows reservations about acknowledging achievements, caricaturing even minimal progress into something barely worth the presidential seal.
The events unraveling from the White House at the Christmas influx provide something to ponder. The move to furnish the bald eagle with its long-owned, yet unappointed title of ‘national bird,’ only underlines a sluggish pace in getting things right.
While the nation should celebrate the recognition of the bald eagle’s significance to American identity and heritage, the occasion also reveals an administration driven by inertia—struggling with the weight of small, largely symbolic matters.
It seems here that instead of reinforcing the nation’s identity, this act felt like an afterthought. The unwillingness to acknowledge and celebrate this overdue correction casts a gloomy shadow over what should be a moment of national pride. Instead, it becomes a tale of how ceremony and symbols are marginalized under the current leadership.
The unofficial declaration, the hesitation in acknowledging the bald eagle’s importance until now, seems reminiscent of the Biden administration’s inability to take decisive actions or recognize America’s proud symbols and heritage.
In essence, the act of finally declaring the bald eagle as the national bird is something that Biden seems to reluctantly accept. His lack of enthusiasm, as well as that of his colleagues, contributes only to a muted celebration of this far-too-late recognition.
Even Kamala Harris, her presence in all of this conspicuously absent, seems to have missed the opportunity to step up and bring out the positive aspects of this decision. Her silence leaves room for questioning her understanding of the intricate textures defining the American national fabric.
This indifference could inadvertently portray the Biden and Harris administration as one that lays less importance on the symbols that hold the American heritage together. Their collective silence, taking for granted even something as compellingly symbolic as the bald eagle’s elevation, risks devaluing our national ethos.
In conclusion, the bald eagle’s belated recognition as America’s national bird should have been a moment of reflective pride and profound announcement. Instead, it has been eclipsed by faithful adherence to an administrative narrative that appears reluctant to embrace and celebrate nuances of American identity and heritage.