--- In [email protected], akasha_108 <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > If I had a heros list, she would be on it. > > Give her a moment of silence, if possible. >
Just heard a little piece about her on NPR. She certainly backed up her words with action. She is an inspiration for everyone. http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi? file=/c/a/2005/04/18/MNGMFCALUC1.DTL > > Noted activist for war victims killed in car bomb attack > Californian Marla Ruzicka championed humanitarian aid in Iraq > > Charles Burress, Tanya Schevitz, Chronicle Staff Writers > > Monday, April 18, 2005 > > Marla Ruzicka poses April 15 with an Iraqi family helped ... > Protesting with Global Exchange at the Commonwealth Club ... Counting > civilian victims of the war in Iraq, Marla Ruzic... > A car bomb attack near Baghdad has killed a well-known activist from > Northern California who entered war zones to record civilian deaths in > Iraq and Afghanistan and secure aid for those caught in the cross fire. > > Marla Ruzicka, 28, of Lakeport (Lake County), founder of CIVIC -- > Campaign for Innocent Victims of Conflict -- died with her driver on > the Baghdad Airport road Saturday when a suicide bomber attacked a > convoy of security contractors that was passing next to her vehicle, > according to her family and news reports quoting U.S. Embassy > officials in Iraq. > > The target of the attack apparently was not Ruzicka's vehicle, said > her mother, Nancy Ruzicka, who received the account from the U.S. > Embassy in Baghdad. > > She was killed while traveling "to visit an Iraqi child injured by a > bomb, part of her daily work of identifying and supporting innocent > victims of this war," said CIVIC representative April Pedersen in a > statement on the group's Web site. > > Given the U.S. military's policy of not accounting for civilian > casualties in Afghanistan and Iraq, Ruzicka's work played a key role > in drawing attention to the human tragedy of the war and giving the > world a well- researched accounting of the cost in innocent lives. > > Ruzicka grew up in Lakeport and made New York City her base for her > frequent trips to the war areas. She continued going into the > increasingly violent Iraqi conflict areas even after most > international aid organizations and relief agencies had bailed out. > > In Iraq and Afghanistan, she worked 15-hour days going out to scenes > of civilian carnage and painstakingly documenting the toll. She also > struggled to obtain relief for the families of the victims. > > The day before she was killed, Ruzicka left a message for her parents > on their cell phone to let them know she was OK after 18 people were > killed by a car bomb in Baghdad. > > "She said, 'Mom and Dad, I love you. I'm safe,' " said Nancy Ruzicka. > "The next day, she wasn't." > > Ruzicka was supposed to come home April 4, but "she just kept finding > work she wanted to do," her mother said. > > Among those calling the distraught family Sunday was U.S. Sen. Patrick > Leahy, D-Vt. > > "I just feel terrible," Leahy told The Chronicle in a telephone > interview from his home outside Washington, D.C. "I told her father > that most people in a lifetime would never accomplish what she has. > She was only 28." > > Ruzicka, in an irrepressible one-woman campaign, got Leahy's office > involved in winning congressional approval of civilian aid worth $10 > million in Afghanistan and $20 million in Iraq, said Leahy aide Tim > Rieser. > > "Marla was really the inspiration behind these programs," Rieser said. > "On the surface, she doesn't seem like someone whom people in Congress > would pay attention to -- vivacious, scatterbrained, losing her cell > phone every 15 minutes, living out of a suitcase, having no money. > > "Then you listen to her, and you realize she's the only one doing it. > She's out there getting the data. She was doing something that really > needed to be done but was so dangerous many people wouldn't do it." > > Her death stunned the activist community in the Bay Area and beyond. > > "Marla seemed to have one speed -- all-ahead-full," Kevin Danaher and > Medea Benjamin, co-founders of San Francisco's Global Exchange, said > in a memorial statement Sunday responding to what they called "the > utter shock of losing this bright, shining light whose work focused on > trying to bring some compassion into the middle of a war zone." > > Ruzicka, at a very young age, showed concern for others, her mother > said. During a trip to Mexico, Nancy Ruzicka said, "she wanted to > spend all of her money buying Chiclets from the poor children to help > them out." > > Her parents learned from neighbors just how creative their daughter > had become in raising money to help the disadvantaged. > > "When they moved, they said, 'We are going to miss Marla coming to > sell us rocks,' " Nancy Ruzicka said. "She was raising funds by > selling rocks." > > It was at Global Exchange, a human rights advocacy group, that Ruzicka > began her activist career while still in high school. > > A dozen years ago, recalled Global Exchange board member Tony Newman, > "a 15-year-old blond-haired girl walked into our office and starting > grabbing armfuls of our research -- leaflets, brochures, books. I had > never seen anyone go in so hungry for material. She said she was going > to take them back to her high school to share with others." > > Newman soon found himself going to Lakeport to speak about the U.S. > embargo of Cuba, a talk organized by the energetic Ruzicka, also a > basketball star at Clear Lake High School. > > She later saw suffering firsthand in the Middle East, Zimbabwe and > Nicaragua through her work with Global Exchange and as a college > student at Long Island University's Friends World program. > > On a trip to Afghanistan with Global Exchange, Ruzicka "was so moved > by the plight of the civilian victims that she dedicated the rest of > her too- short life to helping innocent victims of war," Danaher and > Benjamin said. > > As she got older, her approach evolved from direct action to pragmatic > cooperation. Her mother recalled an early episode when President Bush > visited Sacramento during the California energy crisis. > > "She mooned the president," her mother said. "The back of her > underpants said, 'Public Power Now.' When she turned back around, the > president looked her in the face -- he was only about a foot away - - > and said, 'Cute.' " > > Her parents are both Republican but have always supported their > daughter and her work, they said Sunday. > > "We're proud of her accomplishments," said her mother, a part-time > travel agent who helped arrange discount plane tickets for her > daughter. "We're going to miss her so much. She was a loving person, > and she spread that love around the world in her concern for others." > > Her father, Clifford Ruzicka, who runs a Lakeport civil engineering > firm, is trying to help CIVIC continue the work his daughter began. > > "She was doing humanitarian work," he said. "It's the plan to keep > that organization viable." > > Any donations in his daughter's memory are requested to go to CIVIC at > P. O. Box 1189, Lakeport, CA 95453, he said. > > "She was constantly meeting with families and constantly meeting with > the military," said Chris Allbritton, a freelance journalist in Iraq. > "She was incredibly high energy, incredibly big heart, and she really > cared." > > Chronicle reporter Rob Collier, who has seen Ruzicka's work abroad, > described her as charming and driven, "making friends of journalists, > military officers, aid workers and government officials." > > Michael Shellenberger, a Bay Area friend of Ruzicka for 10 years, > said, "She was trying to get a precedent set where militaries pay for > civilian victims. I think there's something historic about that." > > A funeral service will be held at 11 a.m. Saturday at St. Mary's > Church in Lakeport. A memorial service is being planned later in > Washington, D.C. > > > ----------------- > > > An American Aid Worker Is Killed in Her Line of Duty > By ROBERT F. WORTH > > Published: April 18, 2005 NY Times > > BAGHDAD, Iraq, April 17 - For more than two years, Marla Ruzicka > worked to get help for innocent civilians caught in cross-fires here. > A 28-year-old Californian with blond hair and an electric smile, she > ran a one-woman aid group. > > On Saturday afternoon, Ms. Ruzicka became a casualty herself. A > suicide bomber attacked a convoy of security contractors that was > passing near her car on the airport road in Baghdad, killing her and > her Iraqi driver, United States Embassy officials in Baghdad said. > > > Ms. Ruzicka had worked in Afghanistan as well as Iraq. She took great > risks, often traveling to talk to Iraqis without the guards and > armored cars that reporters here tend to rely on. She also had an > extraordinary gift for promoting her cause, whether in Iraq or Washington. > > She worked with Senator Patrick J. Leahy, Democrat of Vermont, to get > $2.5 million for civilian victims in Afghanistan, and later, $10 > million for victims in Iraq. Last week another $10 million was > authorized for the Iraq program. > > "She was the one that persuaded us," Mr. Leahy said Sunday afternoon > in a telephone interview. "Here's someone who at 28 years old did more > than most people do in a lifetime." > > Ms. Ruzicka was deceptively girlish in person. She often arranged > parties for the foreign correspondents here and in Afghanistan. She > was in her element, with her distinctive giggle always audible over > the music. But she used the occasions to lobby reporters to write > about the things that mattered to her. > > The evening before she died, she visited this reporter in Baghdad to > talk about civilian casualties. She spoke with affection about a > 2-year-old girl she was helping, whose parents and other relatives > were killed by a missile in 2003. > > "She calls me bride Marla because of my hair," she said happily of the > girl, Harah. > > Ms. Ruzicka had also obtained new numbers on civilian casualties from > the American military, which does not normally release them, and was > eager to talk. > > "Together we could really make a difference," she had written earlier > in a typical e-mail message. "You could go home feeling extra good." > > Born in Lakeport, Calif., Ms. Ruzicka came to activism early. At the > age of 15, she walked into the offices of Global Exchange, a leftist > advocacy group in San Francisco, and collected all its brochures. > Later, she persuaded an organizer at the group to give a talk at her > high school. > > In her early 20's she was an angry activist, and was once was hauled > off by police after protesting during a speech by George W. Bush, then > governor of Texas. > > Later, she changed her tactics. In 2002, she attended a Senate hearing > where Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld testified about Iraq. > Afterward, she walked up and shook his hand. > > "I didn't scream," she said recently. "I thanked him for testifying. > And I started talking about civilian casualties," she said, laughing. > > By then she had already spent time in Afghanistan, where she stunned > and ultimately impressed many aid workers and journalists with her > ability to get help for victims. She came to Iraq in 2003 and founded > her organization, Campaign for Innocent Victims in Conflict. > > In the past year she moved to New York, but she still spent much of > her time in Iraq. She was planning to go home in about a week. > > On the day she was killed, Ms. Ruzicka was visiting Iraqi families > that had lost relatives to the violence here. She sent a text message > to a friend saying the stories had been painful to hear. > > An American Army officer who arrived on the scene shortly after the > bomber struck said that Ms. Ruzicka's car was engulfed in flames, and > that she was still alive and conscious, with burns over 90 percent of > her body. > > A medic on the scene treated her, said the officer, Brig. Gen. Karl > Horst, and heard her last words. > > "I'm alive," she said. To subscribe, send a message to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Or go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FairfieldLife/ and click 'Join This Group!' Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FairfieldLife/ <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
