THE TIPPEN FAMILY TREE

THE TIPPEN FAMILY TREE

    George McDuff Tippen was one of the hardest working men in the Tippen family. In the mid eighteen hundreds he homesteaded a large plot of land in the southern state of Louisiana, and took on the monumental task of clearing the land for farming.  He designated a plot of land for a cemetery and planted a tree in the center of the cemetery. He named the tree the Tippen Family Tree.   Grandpa McDuff was a devout Christian and there was something significant in his choosing the dogwood tree to be the family tree.  That particular tree grew to be over one hundred years old and became known as one of the oldest and largest dogwoods ever to be recorded.   

    Amy and Dennis Tippen raised a large family and even though they were elementary educated they were intelligent parents. They taught their children respect, to have respect for themselves and to have respect for others. They believed children should provide the labor for subsistence farming, and as a result, the children grew up knowing the value of hard work. There was never a Southern man who had more respect for women than Dennis Tippen, and he would have punched any man in the nose who made disrespectable remarks to ladies.

    Amy Tippen was a lady with a big heart.  Not only did she feed a large family on a low income budget but she found ways to feed other hungry children in the neighborhood.  She instilled in all her children the importance of caring for the needy. Therefore, I have concerns about individuals who support a political party whose main objective is to cut funds from all social programs, particular the programs that provide food for hungry children. For those who support this kind of governing you need someone to show you that you are brainwashed in the same manner as the poor Confederate soldiers who gave their lives for the unjust cause of slavery. I am sure if we could speak to any Confederate soldier who died in the Civil War he would tell us that he greatly regrets allowing a government to brainwash him into sacrificing his life for such an unworthy cause as a plantation owner becoming richer at the expense of slave labor.

      It is important for future generations to know that there are several within the Tippen family who disagree with every aspect of the Confederacy.  We do not support any government that mistreats people based on skin color, sexual orientation, or ethnic origin.  We know that many of you, yet to be born, will be gay, lesbian, transgender, and bisexual, and you need to know that long before you were born there were some within the Tippen family who supported your rights to exist. Even though you will encounter a hostile environment you will be able to speak with a louder and a more authoritative voice than any Southerners have ever heard. You will speak out against all forms of prejudice, discrimination, and bigotry.  You will look your grandfathers and grandmothers directly in the face and say to them, “YOU ARE WRONG; gay children have the same rights to exist as any others.”  You will stand firm for gay rights and many of you will be elected to public offices and one day one of you may become the president of the United States.

   All of this has happened because one man planted one tree. And that tree grew to be a strong tree with many limbs. And those limbs produced branches with leaves of many shapes, sizes, and colors.  Today the Tippen Family Tree is not a Southern Tree and is not a Northern Tree but a Universal Tree. The voices from that tree are now heard in many countries around the world and this is only the beginning.