Marla Ruzicka deserves our respect, dammit
Sun Apr 17, 2005 at 10:49:43 PM PDT
[Update: After being fairly and properly chastized for overlooking
Susan Hu's diary on this topic, I apologized and signed off. I was surprised to see this diary alive this morning. I should not have been: Marla Ruzicka's story is that compelling. Sorry for underestimating the DKos community and for the ham-handed way this was handled.]
As noted earlier by Trill, Marla Ruzicka was a true American hero. She was the kind of activist that puts 99.9 % of those who call themselves activists to shame. While the rest of us were wringing our hands over the plight of the innocent victims of American wars, she was helping them. While we were cussing the Department of Defense for not having the decency to count the civilians that were killed during the war, she was counting them. In Iraq. On the ground.
So, when Trill alerted the Kos community to her death, about how long do you think his diary lasted? About 2 minutes and 14 seconds until it scrolled into oblivion. Three people paid their respects.
If you want to read about Tom Delay, this is not for you. If you want to read about a real American hero, I'll see you on the flip.
From
MSNBC
SAN FRANCISCO - A woman who led an effort to help those ravaged by violence in Iraq fell victim to the war herself when a car bomb killed her and two other people, officials said Sunday.
Marla Ruzicka, founder of Campaign for Innocent Victims in Conflict, died Saturday in the blast, which also killed an Iraqi and another foreigner, officials said. She had been in Iraq conducting door-to-door surveys trying to determine the number of civilian casualties in the country.
Ruzicka, 28, of Lakeport, founded CIVIC in 2003 and was instrumental in securing millions of dollars in aid money from the federal government for distribution in Iraq.
When the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq began in March 2003, Ruzicka was already in Baghdad with Code Pink, said Jodi Evans, co-founder of the women's anti-war group.
Other activists decided to return to the United States to talk about how the Iraqi people were affected by the invasion, but Ruzicka made a commitment to stay, Evans said. She founded the group CIVIC that year.
"Marla thought she would be more effective staying, because once the bombs started falling, people would be hurt and she needed to help them get their lives back together," Evans said.
Even as fighting continued to rage in sections of Baghdad in mid-April 2003, Ruzicka arrived back in the Iraqi capital, set up office in an unprotected hotel and soon was a regular visitor to the city's makeshift newsrooms, encouraging media interest in the civilian-casualty story.
"Spread the word -- it will be what we make of it," she e-mailed friends as she began her Iraq work.
From NY Times
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."
* * * *
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.
From Wash Post
"The amazing thing is she came here as an anti-war activist, really," said Tim Rieser, an aide to Leahy who worked closely with Ruzicka on compensating Afghan and Iraq families. But she "quickly saw that wasn't the way to accomplish what she felt strongest about, which was to help innocent people who were wounded -- to get Congress, get the U.S. military to do that."
"In that sense, she accomplished what frankly nobody has ever accomplished," Rieser said. "Programs were created for Afghanistan and for Iraq to provide assistance to victims of U.S. military mistakes."
Ruzicka would lose her cell phone every other day, Rieser recalled, but she could get Bianca Jagger to a party in Kabul, win millions in public and private funds for war victims, and change the way the United States handled war, colleagues said.
At the risk of burying the lead: this from the Washington Post:
This time Ruzicka stayed in Baghdad longer than she had planned because she believed she had found the key to establishing that the U.S. military kept records of its civilian victims, despite its official statements otherwise, colleagues said.
Now, if this doesn't get your attention, God help you.
