We have a small Confederate flag that proudly waves from a pole in our backyard. It has nothing to do with slavery. It is to honor those ancestors who made the ultimate sacrifice while defending their home and families. It flies along side the stars and stripes. Each year my family assists with the placement of flags on the graves of Confederate Veterans during Confederate Memorial Weekend. We have played an instrumental part in securing military monuments for these veterans and the placement of memorial monuments in local cemeteries and the courthouse lawn. Again, it has nothing to do with slavery. Remembrance of our ancestors has no place for color. Methinks our governor, Mr. Holden and Rep. Gephardt must have flunked History 101. Does Mr. Holden know that a couple blocks from his home in the Governors Mansion is the monument for Major General AND Governor John Sappington Marmaduke. Major General John Sappington Marmaduke (1833-1887), born in Missouri, educated at West Point, resigned his United States Army Commission in 1861 to fight for the south. Captured at Mine Creek, Kansas 1864. Survived to be elected Missouri Governor in 1885. Son of former Governor Meredith Miles Marmaduke. Was the first Confederate Veteran to serve as Governor of Missouri. Although the native of Saline County attended the United States Military Academy, he later fought for the confederacy as a Major General in Missouri and Arkansas. He died of pneumonia while in office and is buried in Jefferson City, Missouri. Also uncle of J.S. Marmaduke was "Claiborne F. Jackson, former Governor of Missouri, who was chosen as the fifth distinguished Missouri leader in the service of the Confederacy whose figure will be carved on the Stone Mountain Memorial near Atlanta, Georgia. F.C. Shoemaker, chairman of the special memorial committee, announced last week. The four previously chosen who images will be carved on the Confederate memorial are: Sterling Price, Joseph O. Shelby, John S. Marmaduke and Francis Marion Cockrell." C. Sappington