On the Trade Day grounds in McKinney is the old Buckner Cemetery. It dates from the Civil War and interred in it are some of the earliest settlers in Collin County. After the city of Buckner ceased to be the county seat of Collin County, the property that contained the Buckner Cemetery was purchased by the O'Brien family. Many of the early O'Brien settlers are buried there. Because the cemetery was on the O'Brien property, it has often been called the O'Brien Cemetery. A later O'Brien became a famous quarterback and has a trophy named after him, given to the most outstanding college quarterback each year. The cemetery is fenced and contains the historical markers for the city of Buckner and the cemetery itself.
In light of recent tragedies, it seems appropriate to think of those who preceded us. Death is normal and each of us hopes we can "die well." Those who lost their lives on the Columbia died honorably and well.
We know what President Bush is trying to do with Iraq. He is playing poker, trying to get Sadam Hussein to blink and leave his country. Bush doesn't want war, but what if Sadam doesn't blink? What if there is a war and our boys and girls come home maimed or dead? Will their deaths be honorable?
The Viet Nam Memorial "Wall" was not erected to memorialize the Vietnam War. It was built to allow us to remember those who died too soon in an unnecessary war. We touch their names and we feel that we let them down. They should still be here with us, teaching us. But in a way they are, and if we'll listen to them and remember their sacrifice, then their deaths could be the most honorable of all our war dead. They are telling us not to make the same mistakes that Johnson made-trying to be the County Sheriff of the world in Vietnam. They are telling us to consider the consequences of war-death and destruction. They are reminding us that it is easier to get in to a war than to get out.
If we go to war, and when the war is over, we find nothing-no chemical weapons, no biological weapons, no nuclear weapons-then, what do we say to the families of our lost soldiers to justify their sacrifice? And what do we say to the bombed out country of Iraq encircled by their enemies? Do we build them a "Wall"?