Eating the most noble of birds

While many find having an animal as a mascot is an appropriate way to instill pride and school spirits on students and alumni, few would agree that human consumption of said mascot is hardly an acceptable behavior. These doubters have never been to Blacksburg, VA, where we regularly consume massive, genetically enhanced Turkey legs every weekend of the fall at football games in addition to the classic Thanksgiving Day meal. Thanksgiving week is usually when the Virginia Tech – University of Virginia football game is played, and media pundits and Wahoos often wonder how a cultured sect of Thomas Jefferson disciplines can lose to near cannibalistic inbreds who eat their own on Thanksgiving. To these nay-sayers, I counter that there are few mascots as delicious as our dear Turkey. In the wild, the turkey is a noble and intelligent creature, only receiving a poor reputation from non-hunters and Benjamin Franklin haters. Ol’ Ben Franklin understood that the turkey would be a fantastic national symbol. Unfortunately, the other founding fathers fell lock step in with other nationalist countries, and used the often displayed eagle (The Roman Empire, Nazi Germany, Mexico… the list goes on, though on a technicality we are using the “North American Bald Eagle”). But we did have a great Thanksgiving, with many friends and family on both coasts. We live a truly blessed life, and are thankful for all the people in our lives!