Environmentally speaking, the choice of national symbol is ultimately more significant than our choice of pre-game music. Climb up and peek into an eagle's nest and the eagle will probably sputter weakly and flap off to consult with its allies on a safe perch somewhere far away. If you tried to climb up and peek into a great horned owl's nest it would most likely swoop in and rearrange your face before you got halfway up the tree. Even a hummingbird is more aggressive in defense of its nest than our national bird. The only sound they make is a whiny excited burble and a neurotic scream.
Woodpeckers sound more menacing.
Nor is the eagle a robust symbol of the work ethic and free enterprise. Most days our proud national bird can be found in many of our national parks mugging vultures to snatch a rotting muskrat carcass or beating up an osprey to steal fish. A little DDT and a few other banal polyhalogenated hydrocarbons and instantly the bald eagle is on the endangered list-for decades. And even though the bald eagle has made an allegedly miraculous post-DDT population comeback, the malingering softy clings to the endangered list. Eagles can't hack noise, phosphates, or heavy metals, either.