War for a better tomorrow

March 21, 2003 12 AM PT

LAGUNA LIFE

Where do I begin? I ponder that question and I have no idea. My

emotions are dead and my thoughts are split. Life as I knew it seems

so very distant. A dream? A nightmare? I wish I knew? I claw for

answers in the middle of the night. I am outmatched -- under gunned.

In truth only time will tell. I continue to hold onto my faith, my

hope, my love and my prayers. I hold onto the hope of a better

tomorrow, a peaceful tomorrow, one of beauty and sunshine. If it were

only that easy.

Life as we knew it as Americans, changed forever on Sept. 11,

2001.

Who ever dreamed that something so tragic, so cowardly, so bloody

red could happen here in the United States or anywhere else for that

matter. (Only the cowards.) If it were a movie it would seem

fictional at best. But that day wasn’t. Just ask the families of all

those that were taken on that beautiful sunny day in New York.

Mothers and fathers, brothers and sisters, policemen and firemen.

Thousands of people who were never given a chance, and for what?

Killed in vain because of where they lived, for what they symbolized

and for what they supposedly believed in? By a group of people who

they had never even met but greeted with such hatred, that they were

willing to die themselves? For their what? Holy crusade? Cowards,

nothing but cowards, taking unsuspecting, innocent lives of people

they had never even seen before.

No one wants to see blood shed, especially me. But I will not play

the fool and denounce this war or play the hero and say that I am for

it. I will however stand by my country and our President with pride

-- all red, white and blue of it. Because in the end I want what is

best for our country and our people.

To never relive another day like Sept. 11, 2001 but instead have

the hope for a peaceful tomorrow -- one without threat in our own

country or abroad and safe for our children. It isn’t today that our

country is fighting for. It is going to war for a better tomorrow.

-Peace-

* JAMES PRIBRAM is a Laguna Beach resident, professional surfer

and co-founder of “They Will Surf Again,” a nonprofit foundation

assisting people with spinal cord injuries. He was also a member of

the Water Quality Advisory Committee. He can be reached at

AlohaSchoolofSurfing.com.