Let me tell you a little story.
Does the name Catherine de Medici mean anything to you? How about Pope Gregory XIII or King Louis XIV? No?
Well, they mean something to me, as does the Liberty Flag, the Gadsden Flag, The Tennessee Battle Flag of 1812, Old Glory, the Bonnie Blue Flag, the first, second and third Confederate States of America Flags, the Battle Flag of the Army of Northern Virginia, the flag of the State of Arkansas and, of course, the 50-star flag of the United States of America.
Some of my earliest European ancestors were French Protestants. Catherine, Gregory and Louis are the names of the people who in the mid-1500s subjugated, maimed and killed many of my Huguenot ancestors in an effort to stamp out this--according to the Catholic Church--terrible heresy.
Some Huguenots stayed in France and fought, while others fled to Protestant European countries who offered them safe haven. Still others continued their flight and immigrated to the British colonies of North America. My ancestors were among the latter.
Within a generation or so, they found their freedom and liberty threatened once again, this time by a fellow named George III. Samuel Brashears answered the call to arms and became a captain serving the new United States during the American Revolution fighting for the Patriot cause.
From Maryland, my branch of the Brashears family moved to Sullivan County, Tennessee. In the early 1800s they again found themselves facing another tyrannical English ruler by the name of George ... this time the 4th. Sampson Brashears and many of his kinfolk joined the 13th Tennessee Volunteers and fought against the English crown to defend their families, their land and their liberty in the War of 1812.
From Tennessee, they immigrated by pack horse to southern Kentucky, where as pioneers they tamed a large tract of land and set about raising livestock. But it wasn't long before, once again, their way of life was threatened. Jesse Brashears (son of Sampson) joined the 13th Kentucky Cavalry C.S.A. and fought through the Civil War on the Confederate side. Interestingly, the battle flag of the 13th Kentucky was not the St. George's Cross of the Army of Northern Virginia, but rather a red Christian cross with 13 white stars on a field of blue.
Jesse Brashears was taken captive at some point, and when he was paroled after the war, he moved with his brothers to Madison County, Arkansas, where they settled near St. Paul and Combs at a place now marked with a sign at the junction of Highway 16 and Highway 23 that reads "Brashears."
Jesse was my great-great-grandfather.
By now you are probably either bored or asking what all of this has to do with the title of this story, so here is my point: There are a lot of symbols I can associate with my family heritage--the Huguenot Cross, the Liberty flag with the crescent, the rattlesnake, a single star on a field of blue, the eagle and so on.
But when I see a Confederate flag, whether it is the familiar "X" of the Battle Flag of the Army of Northern Virginia or some other flag flown during the Civil War, I beam with pride. It's not about slavery or tariffs or even states' rights. It's about the struggle for freedom and liberty.
It's about my ancestors and 500 years of fighting against tyranny, oppression and injustice. It's about my ancestors fighting for their freedom to worship, work and raise their families without being subjugated. It is about the pursuit of life, liberty and happiness guaranteed to us under the Constitution of the United States of America and the people to whom I owe my very life who were willing to fight and die to preserve those guarantees.
So, I have a question for those who would remove all vestiges of the Confederacy from the public consciousness, those who feel empowered to tell the rest of us which symbols and historical facts to honor, those who would take down the Confederate flag from cemeteries, battlefields, forts and monuments across the country and erase the Confederate star from the Arkansas flag.
Which of my ancestors should I honor and remember?
The courageous Christians of the Reformation ... the Patriots of the American Revolution ... the pioneers of the Westward Expansion ... the brave men who fought the War of 1812 ... the Rebels who stood up for their rights and freedoms in the Civil War ... or the hardworking settlers of Madison County?
You tell me which ones are worthy of my admiration and which symbols of their sacrifices I should cherish. They were all from the same blood!
Take down the flag?
Erase my family!
Ronald Barrow (Brashears) Springer is a direct descendant of Jesse Clyde Brashears, C.S.A.
Editorial on 07/11/2015