"For one thing, she was naive about her own infallibility."
Posted on 04/19/2005 8:29:50 PM PDT by SmithL
An instinctual sense of compassion and justice fueled Marla Ruzicka's life, from her junior high school days when she led a student protest against the first Persian Gulf War to years working with the needy and oppressed around the world.
Still coping with the longtime Bay Area activist's tragic death in an Iraqi suicide bombing Saturday, Ruzicka's relatives and other local activists said they planned to carry on her work without her.
They hope to keep alive the advocacy group, the Campaign for Innocent Victims in Conflict, the Lake County native founded in 2002 that has won millions of dollars in aid for Afghan and Iraqi civilians.
They said they will use Ruzicka's story to highlight the plight of civilians wounded or killed by American troops in Iraq and Afghanistan, starting at memorial services at San Francisco City Hall on Friday afternoon, Lakeport's St. Mary's Church on Saturday morning and Washington, D.C., in coming weeks.
"Let's make something of her work and make it lasting," said Medea Benjamin, a founding director of the San Francisco-based advocacy group Global Exchange, where Ruzicka worked until 2002. "Let's require the military publicize civilian causalities."
The U.S. military does not keep track of Iraqi civilians killed by its soldiers, leaving the task of counting the civilian dead to nonprofit and advocacy groups such as Ruzicka's.
Despite the danger of working in the war-torn country, Ruzicka returned to Iraq this year to document the stories of civilian victims and to try to win compensation for them or their relatives.
While she was traveling on the road to Baghdad's airport, a car bomb exploded near her car Saturday afternoon, killing the 28-year-old woman, an Iraqi associate Faiz Ali Salim and a European security guard.
Benjamin, who mentored Ruzicka for more than a decade, had tried to warn her before she left about the dangers in Iraq. In January, Benjamin herself had turned back from the Iraqi border due to security concerns.
"She was very much the same individual during the time I knew her, being energetic and enthusiastic and a bit naive," Benjamin said. "As she got older, she learned about the complexity of the world but remained naive in a good and bad sense.
"For one thing, she was naive about her own infallibility."
Twin brother Mark Ruzicka, who recently returned from Honduras, where he farmed and did relief work, said Ruzicka will remain an inspiration. Marla Ruzicka is also survived by four half-siblings and her parents.
"I hope out of all this crisis we can let people know about CIVIC," Mark said from the family's Lakeport home. "She's definitely influenced me, and I do my piece to make the world better for all those who are more unfortunate."
Her brother said her parents encouraged their children to travel, learn about the world and get involved.
Marla Ruzicka took those lessons to heart. She was class president at both her junior high and high schools, worked with the poor and needy around the world and befriended lawmakers, such as Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt.
Meanwhile, she rarely maintained a permanent address, preferring to stay at the homes of friends such as Benjamin.
In accounts posted on CIVIC's Web site, Ruzicka wrote passionately about the people she met in the world's war zones and the sense of personal duty she felt to help them.
"The last two years from Kabul to Baghdad, my time has been made up of rich experiences and intimate experiences with families harmed as a result of U.S. military actions," Ruzicka wrote, about a year before her death. "Their tragedies are my responsibilities."
"For one thing, she was naive about her own infallibility."
Please spare me from the "do gooders". What they actually are, are disaster facilitators. They ALWAYS make things worse and then they just waltz away leaving death and destruction in their little weenie wakes.
"Activist", code word for anti-American commie traitors.
So does anyone keep track of the civilians killed by the terrorists? Such as Ruzicka, for one?
That, of course, could not be used to besmirch the United States, but I'm sure her friends are honest enough to provide those figures as well. Right?
As far as naive commie dogoodism she's a 9 out of 10. May her soul rest in peace. Sometimes the dogooders help keep us honest. I got no problems with her. I'll bet a lot of our boys over there saw her as babelicious with the peacenik stuff only adding to her allure
It's a fact, sad though it is, that when your country is at war innocents will die. On the one hand groups such as this can offer aid and maybe should be admired for doing so, but putting all of the blame on America seems to always be part of it.
"The U.S. military does not keep track of Iraqi civilians killed by its soldiers, leaving the task of counting the civilian dead to nonprofit and advocacy groups such as Ruzicka's."
And that task is needed why? (That's a rhetorical question). No doubt a good heart but so naive. God rest her soul.
I dont recall a foundation set up for the missionaries that were slaughtered in the Philipines, or the nuns murdered by the Sandinista's. Only liberals can be martyrs because followers have to elevate their status to justify what was from begining to end just a dumb idea.
[...the plight of civilians wounded or killed by American troops in Iraq and Afghanistan]
What about the plight of more than 400,000 civilians killed by Saddam Hussein in genocide that was stopped by the US led coalition. If you people were intellectually honest you would highlight that.
http://www.nationalreview.com/murdock/murdock200403190916.asp
Isn't Medea Commandant of "Code Pinko's"?
What about the number of civilians killed and executed by the Taliban? Of the statements posted in various threads by this "activist" and her crew, I haven't seen criticisms of the taliban or the insurgents in Iraq.
She and her comrades would have protested that civilian casualities in Germany were unacceptable and that fiends must be allowed to stay in power. Millions of innocents may die at the hands of tyrants, but that is merely the good price of peace.
For these people:
Dachau, Khmer Rouge killing fields, Iraqi mass graves, Stalinist purges... all are "acceptable" and should not be resisted by force.
Activist = [A]nti-american [C]ommie [T]raitors
You good!
Well... one good thing is the shrapnel she took might have saved one of those innocent Iraqis she was so concerned about.
Actually, they're only concerned with attacks by US forces. So her death, the death of her driver and other Iraqis killed/injured in this attack. Well....they don't count.
I feel about as bad about this morons death as I did about Rachel Corries. That is to say, not too bad at all.
L
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