A Turkey Takes a Stand

At the crossroads of law, advocacy, and Thanksgiving lies a cute little piece of elementary school theater: A Turkey Takes a Stand by Lois Lewis. It’s the story of Trevor Turkey, a turkey who does his best to advocate a rather obvious change to the traditional Thanksgiving dinner. Trevor begins his appeal:

Thank you, Senator. I come to you this morning to talk about Thanksgiving, more specifically, about the plight of turkeys on that great national holiday. For most citizens, Thanksgiving is a time of celebration. For me and my fellow turkeys, many of whom become the main course on dinner tables across this country, it’s a sad, sad day indeed.

Trevor makes a brief historical argument and effectively responds to a number of second order concerns from senators. It’s a quick read with great potential for teaching some advocacy lessons to elementary schoolers.

I figured it was a more upbeat offering than further debating the whether the annual presidential turkey pardoning represents an innocuous annual ritual, an affront to animal rights, evidence of the influence of Big Agriculture on Washington, or a distraction from human prisoners actually seeking a pardon.

To those who are celebrating, Happy Thanksgiving.