RELECTIONS ON THE DEATH AND LIFE OF A YOUNG ACTIVIST

• Dear friends of Voiceyourself,
• It has been some time since you've heard from us in this manner but since we are all inundated with so many emails blasts we tend to reach out only whenwe want to bring your attention to a particular event or action alert or concern. And we do this because we know your input will help steer us in a wise direction.Although Woody and Laura lead our efforts to work for change sadly today, we write to you about something that we cannot change, that is the inevitability of death. But how we choose to process death will impact the value and meaning of life.In this case we are talking about the death of 28 year-old humanitarian activist, Marla Ruzicka, killed on April 16 by a roadside bomber in Iraq.Her death impacted so many people worldwide but her death hit Woody and his friends personally and profoundly. We are fortunate to have them share their thoughts as contributing editors to VYS. Last weekend Woody and TomBallanco reached out to one another and we are able to share that with you today. Their brief exchanges are raw and reflect the powerful force of this young woman's extraordinary life. She was, for so many, a beacon of hope. In a few years. she founded and built a respected organization devoted to compensating Afghan and Iraqi families whose loved ones had been killed or maimed.While there have been worldwide testimonies published about her achievements, these exchanges help us to understand how these two friendsshouldered their grief for one another and in some way find meaning in her life lived with such valor.
• Please take the time to check out "The meaning of one woman's life andlegacy"http://tinyurl.com/7cum9
• Dave Frankel's OpenLetterhttp://tinyurl.com/8nmwr
• Then share you thoughts with us in the Forum threadhttp://tinyurl.com/dfhfk
• peace,Barbara

Whose Nation Under God?

• Published on Wednesday, April 27, 2005 by the Boston Globe
  
• Mirror URL: http://tinyurl.com/77f4f
  
• Whose Nation Under God?
  by Robert Kuttner
  
  
• When John Kennedy was running for president and passions were running high about whether a Catholic could serve both the American citizenry and Rome, a joke made the rounds about a priest and a minister whose friendship nearly came to blows. Finally the priest phoned his old friend. ''What a pity," he said. ''Here we are, both men of the cloth, fighting over politics." ''It's true," said the minister. ''We're both Christians. We both worship the same God -- you in your way, and I in His."
  America, which separated church and state precisely to protect the private right to worship, has long had its share of religious absolutists who have wanted to harness the power of the state to their own view of revealed truth. But never before in our history has the government deliberately and cynically intervened on the side of the zealots.
  President Bush, Tom DeLay, Bill Frist, and company are playing with serious fire. As the joke suggests, there is no challenging revealed truth. That's why the state stays neutral.
  What's under siege here is nothing less than the Enlightenment. Please recall that what we benignly remember as the Renaissance coexisted with centuries of vicious religious persecution -- Christians persecuting heretics like Galileo, expelling and slaughtering Muslims and Jews, then doing bloody battle with each other following the Protestant Reformation.
  The philosophers of the Enlightenment were men of science who understood that faith could not be disputed but that reason could be subjected to the test of logic and evidence. The American Revolution was a triple triumph -- for political democracy, religious tolerance, and for the free inquiry demanded by the scientific method.
  Today's religious extremists are not only trying to use the state, with all its power, as religious proselytizer. They oppose science when it happens to conflict with their version of revealed truth. They twist history to claim that the Republic's freethinking Founders, like Jefferson, Adams, and Madison, were really theocrats like themselves. They long for the predemocratic world of absolutes circa 1500.
  Although proponents of state sponsorship of ''faith-based" activities claim that all faiths are equally eligible, the politically dominant soon attempt to dictate the approved faith. Leon Wieseltier has observed, ''It is never long before one nation under God gives way to one God under a nation."
  Last December the far right declared that religious pluralists were waging war on Christianity itself. ''They hate the idea of Christmas," said Pat Buchanan. ''Seasons' Greetings" became politically incorrect. Merry Christmas became a battle cry instead of a tiding of good will.
  Frist, the Senate majority leader, continued this theme last Sunday, lending official comfort to a convention of religious extremists calling itself Justice Sunday. This confab of judge-bashers, nominally ''people of faith," is actually promoting a particular, fundamentalist Protestant faith. Some of its leaders do not even consider Catholics to be Christians.
  As if to prove the wisdom of Jefferson (and the priest/minister joke), the latest pope richly reciprocates. Despite going through the motions of ecumenical outreach, Benedict XVI in his prior life as Cardinal Ratzinger made it all too clear that people who did not embrace the one true church and its dogmas were going straight to hell. Happily, most American Catholics disagree.
  For now, this coalition of the faithful (who literally believe that many of their allies of convenience are destined for eternal damnation) is willing to put aside differences that will be settled in the next life and join forces on behalf of the faith-based public trough and the ecumenical crusade against an independent judiciary.
  I never thought I'd live to see a time when the Enlightenment -- the Enlightenment! -- was politically controversial. Democracy, like science, depends on debate, tolerance, and evidence. And in a democracy, nothing is scarier than a political force convinced it is getting irrefutable truth directly from God.
  Mercifully, religious extremists do not represent anything like a majority. We still have a proudly independent judiciary--in the Schiavo case, Governor Jeb Bush could not find a single Florida judge willing to overturn the testimony of countless doctors. And mainstream denominations like the Presbyterians have begun speaking out vigorously on behalf of religious tolerance and pluralism.
  But let's be clear: Our very democracy is under assault. History is filled with cases where a small minority was able to overturn democratic institutions.
  Zeal on behalf of tolerance seems almost a contradiction. But the large American majority that believes in freedom of conscience and inquiry had better get organized with the same enlightened passion that drove America's Founders.
  
• Robert Kuttner is co-editor of The American Prospect. His column appears regularly in the Globe.
  
• © 2005 Boston Globe
  ###

This is our Guernica

• This is our Guernica
• Ruined, cordoned Falluja is emerging as the decade's monument to brutality
  http://tinyurl.com/clvks
• Jonathan Steele and Dahr Jamail
• Wednesday April 27, 2005 Guardian
• Robert Zoellick is the archetypal US government insider, a man with a brilliant technical mind but zero experience of any coalface or war front. Sliding effortlessly between ivy league academia, the US treasury and corporate boardrooms (including an advisory post with the scandalous Enron), his latest position is the number-two slot at the state department.
  Yet this ultimate "man of the suites" did something earlier this month that put the prime minister and the foreign secretary to shame. On their numerous visits to Iraq, neither has ever dared to go outside the heavily fortified green zones of Baghdad and Basra to see life as Iraqis have to live it. They come home after photo opportunities, briefings and pep talks with British troops and claim to know what is going on in the country they invaded, when in fact they have seen almost nothing.
  Zoellick, by contrast, on his first trip to Iraq, asked to see Falluja. Remember Falluja? A city of some 300,000, which was alleged to be the stronghold of armed resistance to the occupation.
  Two US attempts were made to destroy this symbol of defiance last year. The first, in April, fizzled out after Iraqi politicians, including many who supported the invasion of their country, condemned the use of air strikes to terrorise an entire city. The Americans called off the attack, but not before hundreds of families had fled and more than 600 people had been killed.
  Six months later the Americans tried again. This time Washington's allies had been talked to in advance. Consistent US propaganda about the presence in Falluja of a top al-Qaida figure, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, was used to create a climate of acquiescence in the US-appointed Iraqi government. Shia leaders were told that bringing Falluja under control was the only way to prevent a Sunni-inspired civil war.
  Blair was invited to share responsibility by sending British troops to block escape routes from Falluja and prevent supplies entering once the siege began.
  Warnings of the onslaught prompted the vast majority of Falluja's 300,000 people to flee. The city was then declared a free-fire zone on the grounds that the only people left behind must be "terrorists".
  Three weeks after the attack was launched last November, the Americans claimed victory. They say they killed about 1,300 people; one week into the siege, a BBC reporter put the unofficial death toll at 2,000. But details of what happened and who the dead were remain obscure. Were many unarmed civilians, as Baghdad-based human rights groups report? Even if they were trying to defend their homes by fighting the Americans, does that make them "terrorists"?
  Journalists "embedded" with US forces filmed atrocities, including the killing of a wounded prisoner, but no reporter could get anything like a full picture. Since the siege ended, tight US restric tions - as well as the danger of hostage-taking that prevents reporters from travelling in most parts of Iraq - have put the devastated city virtually off limits.
  In this context Zoellick's trip, which was covered by a small group of US journalists, was illuminating. The deputy secretary of state had to travel to this "liberated" city in a Black Hawk helicopter flying low over palm trees to avoid being shot down. He wore a flak jacket under his suit even though Falluja's streets were largely deserted. His convoy of eight armoured vehicles went "so quickly past an open-air bakery reopened with a US-provided micro-loan that workers tossing dough could be glanced only in the blink of an eye," as the Washington Post reported. "Blasted husks of buildings still line block after block," the journalist added.
  Meeting hand-picked Iraqis in a US base, Zoellick was bombarded with complaints about the pace of US reconstruction aid and frequent intimidation of citizens by American soldiers. Although a state department factsheet claimed 95% of residents had water in their homes, Falluja's mayor said it was contaminated by sewage and unsafe.
  Other glimpses of life in Falluja come from Dr Hafid al-Dulaimi, head of the city's compensation commission, who reports that 36,000 homes were destroyed in the US onslaught, along with 8,400 shops. Sixty nurseries and schools were ruined, along with 65 mosques and religious sanctuaries.
  Daud Salman, an Iraqi journalist with the Institute for War and Peace Reporting, on a visit to Falluja two weeks ago, found that only a quarter of the city's residents had gone back. Thousands remain in tents on the outskirts. The Iraqi Red Crescent finds it hard to go in to help the sick because of the US cordon around the city.
  Burhan Fasa'a, a cameraman for the Lebanese Broadcasting Company, reported during the siege that dead family members were buried in their gardens because people could not leave their homes. Refugees told one of us that civilians carrying white flags were gunned down by American soldiers. Corpses were tied to US tanks and paraded around like trophies.
  Justin Alexander, a volunteer for Christian Peacemaker Teams, recently found hundreds living in tents in the grounds of their homes, or in a single patched-up room. A strict system of identity cards blocks access to anyone whose papers give a birthplace outside Falluja, so long-term residents born elsewhere cannot go home. "Fallujans feel the remnants of their city have been turned into a giant prison," he reports.
  Many complain that soldiers of the Iraqi national guard, the fledgling new army, loot shops during the night-time curfew and detain people in order to take a bribe for their release. They are suspected of being members of the Badr Brigade, a Shia militia that wants revenge against Sunnis.
  One thing is certain: the attack on Falluja has done nothing to still the insurgency against the US-British occupation nor produced the death of al-Zarqawi - any more than the invasion of Afghanistan achieved the capture or death of Osama bin Laden. Thousands of bereaved and homeless Falluja families have a new reason to hate the US and its allies.
  At least Zoellick went to see. He gave no hint of the impression that the trip left him with, but is too smart not to have understood something of the reality. The lesson ought not to be lost on Blair and Straw. Every time the prime minister claims it is time to "move on" from the issue of the war's legality and rejoice at Iraq's transformation since Saddam Hussein was toppled, the answer must be: "Remember Falluja." When the foreign secretary next visits Iraq, he should put on a flak jacket and tour the city that Britain had a share in destroying.
  The government keeps hoping Iraq will go away as an election issue. It stubbornly refuses to do so. Voters are not only angry that the war was illegal, illegitimate and unnecessary. The treatment inflicted on Iraqis since the invasion by the US and Britain is equally important.
  In the 1930s the Spanish city of Guernica became a symbol of wanton murder and destruction. In the 1990s Grozny was cruelly flattened by the Russians; it still lies in ruins. This decade's unforgettable monument to brutality and overkill is Falluja, a text-book case of how not to handle an insurgency, and a reminder that unpopular occupations will always degenerate into desperation and atrocity.
  
• · Jonathan Steele is the Guardian's senior foreign correspondent; Dahr Jamail is a freelance American journalist.

Arlington West, A Photo Essay

Arlington West, a photo essay - As Posted On 'Veterans For Peace' Board ,w/added links

• From: Brian Tinkler
• Sent: Sunday, April 24, 2005 11:57 PM
• Subject: Arlington West, a photo essay
• Please forward this e-mail to all of the hard working Arlington West volunteers.
• I stopped by the Arlington West site this morning. I had intended to take some photographs,and leave. I arrive so early the site was not yet set up. As a vet (U.S. Army, 1972-1974) I felt it my duty to pitch in and help with the days set up. I tried as best I could to hold back my tears, but I'm sure I fooled no one.
• Here's a link to my photo essay of the "Arlington West" project. http://tinyurl.com/7qv6a
• Peace. TINK
• http://tinyurl.com/c467j
• http://www.ride4kids.org/
• ===================
• Arlington West:
  http://tinyurl.com/djgww
• Arlington West 'On The Road':
  http://tinyurl.com/auwbt

The Agony of War [Photos of Marla and Harah In Previous Posts]

• Published on Monday, April 25, 2005 by the New York Times

http://tinyurl.com/cwnef

• The Agony of War
  by Bob Herbert
  
  
• "Nothing is so beautiful and wonderful, nothing is so continually fresh and surprising, so full of sweet and perpetual ecstasy, as the good."— Simone Weil
  
• "There's no doubt in my mind that the good Lord has his hands full right now." — The Rev. Ted Oswald at the funeral Mass for Marla Ruzicka
  
• In a horrifying incident that occurred in the spring of 2003, an Iraqi woman threw two of her children, an infant and a toddler, out the window of a car that had been hit accidentally in an American rocket attack. The woman and the rest of her family perished in the black smoke and flames of the wreckage. The toddler, whose name was Zahraa, was severely burned. She died two weeks later.
  The infant, named Harah, was not badly hurt. She was photographed recently on the lap of Marla Ruzicka, a young humanitarian-aid worker from California who was herself killed a little over a week ago in the flaming wreckage of a car that was destroyed in a suicide bomb attack in Baghdad.
  The vast amount of suffering and death endured by civilians as a result of the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq has, for the most part, been carefully kept out of the consciousness of the average American. I can't think of anything the Bush administration would like to talk about less. You can't put a positive spin on dead children.
  As for the press, it has better things to cover than the suffering of civilians in war. The aversion to this topic is at the opposite extreme from the ecstatic journalistic embrace of the death of one pope and the election of another, and the media's manic obsession with the comings and goings of Martha, Jacko, et al.
  There's been hardly any media interest in the unrelieved agony of tens of thousands of innocent civilians in Iraq. It's an ugly subject, and the idea has taken hold that Americans need to be protected from stories or images of the war that might be disturbing. As a nation we can wage war, but we don't want the public to be too upset by it.
  So the public doesn't even hear about the American bombs that fall mistakenly on the homes of innocent civilians, wiping out entire families. We hear very little about the frequent instances of jittery soldiers opening fire indiscriminately, killing and wounding men, women and children who were never a threat in the first place. We don't hear much about the many children who, for one reason or another, are shot, burned or blown to eternity by our forces in the name of peace and freedom.
  Out of sight, out of mind.
  This stunning lack of interest in the toll the war has taken on civilians is one of the reasons Ms. Ruzicka, who was just 28 when she died, felt compelled to try to personally document as much of the suffering as she could. At times she would go from door to door in the most dangerous areas, taking down information about civilians who had been killed or wounded. She believed fiercely that Americans needed to know about the terrible pain the war was inflicting, and that we had an obligation to do everything possible to mitigate it.
  Her ultimate goal, which Senator Patrick Leahy of Vermont is pursuing, was to establish a U.S. government office, perhaps in the State Department, to document the civilian casualties of American military operations. That information would then be publicly reported. Compensation would be provided for victims and their families, and the data would be studied in an effort to minimize civilian casualties in future operations.
  War is always about sorrow and the deepest suffering. Nitwits try to dress it up in the finery of half-baked rationalizations, but the reality is always wanton bloodshed, rotting flesh and the lifelong trauma of those who are physically or psychically maimed.
  More than 600 people attended Ms. Ruzicka's funeral on Saturday in her hometown of Lakeport, Calif. Among them was Bobby Muller, chairman of the Vietnam Veterans of America Foundation. A former Marine lieutenant, he knows something about the agony of war. His spinal cord was severed when he was shot in the back in Vietnam.
  He told the mourners: "Marla demonstrated that an individual can make a profound difference in this world. Her life was dedicated to innocent victims of conflict, exactly what she ended up being."
  
• © 2005 NY Times Co.
  

Two 'Must' Reads

• Hi-Ho, Hi-Ho, It's Off To War We Go..
  
  
• This country's most expendable commodity is its children and, with few exceptions, Americans appear to be both senseless and blind.
  
• By Sheila Samples
  
• They're coming after our children -- sweeping them all up -- bullying them at schools, stalking them, offering them big bucks to join the military. And there's no one to stop them. Servile Americans, even those who can still see, feel helpless. When faced with the decision to stand up and speak up, or give up their children, they are bombarded from all sides with strident demands for patriotism so, like their counterparts of empirical Rome, Americans await their fate -- their children's fate -- in silent despair.
  
• SNIP Rest Of Article At: http://snipurl.com/e8h3

• The Myth of U.S. Cultural, Religious, Political, and Social Superiority
• The concept of Manifest Destiny describes the 19th century conviction that God intended the continent of North America to be under the control of Christian, European Americans.
• By Kristina M. Gronquist
• Although the shameful concept of Manifest Destiny should be confined to history books, it has reared its ugly head, as reflected in our government’s 21st century mission to reshape the Middle East. Of course, the psychology of Manifest Destiny – the projection of Anglo-Saxon supremacy - never really went away, it has always been used to justify America’s expansionist adventures.
• SNIP Rest Of Article At: http://snipurl.com/e8h5
  

U.S. Activist Killed in Iraq Remembered - April 16 2005

Marla 'In Honor and Sadness'

• U.S. Activist Killed in Iraq Remembered
  Email this StoryApr 24, 2:28 AM (ET)
• By BRIAN MELLEY
  
  
• LAKEPORT, Calif. (AP) - An American activist who was killed by a car bomb in Iraq earlier this month was remembered Saturday for her dedication to humanitarian causes and her personal mission of counting civilian casualties of war.
  Many of the more than 600 mourners, including friends, family, colleagues and journalists who traveled from around the world for her funeral, shared memories of Marla Ruzicka's boundless energy that helped her accomplish much in her 28 years.
  Kevin Danaher, co-founder of San Francisco-based Global Exchange, a nonprofit international human rights organization, said Ruzicka's magic was understanding and showing unconditional love.
  "That's why a 28-year-old woman from a small town in Northern California has so many people around the world grieving for her," Danaher said.
  Ruzicka traveled to Iraq before the March 2003 U.S.-led invasion and later founded a group called CIVIC, the Campaign for Innocent Victims in Conflict, whose aim was to tally the number of Iraqi civilian deaths in the conflict. She was also instrumental in securing millions of dollars in aid money from the federal government for distribution in Iraq.
  On April 16, she became a statistic herself when she was killed in a car bombing in Baghdad, along with her interpreter and another foreigner.
  The Rev. Ted Oswald, who conducted the Mass at St. Mary's Catholic Church, said it was sad that it took a tragedy to bring to light all the good Ruzicka did. Oswald said she usually accomplished things in her own quiet way, though there were exceptions.
  "There's no doubt in my mind that the good Lord has his hands full right now," he said, referring to Ruzicka's sometimes outspoken nature. "Not only does he have his hands full, but heaven will never be the same."
  Oswald also recounted the time when an 8-year-old Ruzicka sold rocks door-to-door to buy carnations for her mother. She even managed to get the flowers on the cheap from the florist.
  The upbeat homily brought laughter from the audience, which included actor Sean Penn, who said he counted Ruzicka among his heroes, and U.S. Sen. Barbara Boxer.
  Ruzicka's activism began in this town 350 miles north of San Francisco, where she worked at a convalescent home, helped abused children and started a girl's soccer team in high school. Eventually, it led her around the world - to parts of Latin America, Africa and the Middle East, where she often traveled in harm's way.
  With passion for her cause and an unbridled capacity for having fun, she was remembered as a force of nature, a cross between Mother Teresa and Buffy the Vampire Slayer, said Quill Lawrence, a radio reporter for the British Broadcasting Corp.
  Ruzicka often arrived in war-torn places unprepared and nearly broke, he said. But Lawrence said she quickly managed to win over the hearts of those she was helping and those whose help she needed.
  Lawrence said Ruzicka repaid favors with her friendship, kindness and a ready smile. She organized parties, slipped heartfelt notes under the doors of friends' rooms and hugged guards at military checkpoints.
  "She made me feel like I was the greatest person on earth," Lawrence told the crowd. "I have it in writing. And I know all of you do as well."
  Bobby Muller, chairman of Vietnam Veterans of America Foundation, said the true value of Ruzicka's work was her ability to counter people's cynicism.
  "Marla demonstrated the fact that an individual can make a profound difference in this world," Muller said. "This woman was our inspiration."
  But Ruzicka was not satisfied with herself, looking in the mirror each day and vowing to do better, said Catherine Philp, a friend and reporter for The Times of London. She didn't know she was already better than most people, Philp said.
  Ruzicka's organization, CIVIC, is urging people to honor her memory and her cause on May 3 by holding vigils to bring attention to civilian casualties of war. Another memorial for Ruzicka is planned in Washington on May 14.
• -------------
  
• On the Net:
  CIVIC: http://www.civicworldwide.org/
• ------------
• "It is certainly dangerous for a state when its citizens have a conscience; what it needs is men/women without conscience, or, better still, men/women whose conscience is quite in conformity with reasons of state, men/women in whom the feeling of personal responsibility has been replaced by the automatic impulse to act in the interests of the state." (Rocker, Culture and Nationalism, Michael E. Coughlan, 1978, p.197)

Ruzicka: "The Quintessential Global Citizen" [LakePort Is Marla's Hometown]

Marla Ruzicka was killed by a car bomb attack in Baghdad Saturday, April 16, 2005.

• This article was emailed to you at the request of : Joe The sender included the following brief message : A FRONT PAGE ARTICLE ON A SUNDAY PAPER--AND THERE ISN'T EVEN A SUNDAY PAPER!! WE DON'T GET A LOCAL PAPER HERE UNTIL TUESDAY. LOVE TO ALL, JOE

• View this article http://www.record-bee.com/

• View Lake County Record-Bee http://tinyurl.com/csmq8

• Please visit the Guest Book for Marla Ruzicka.
  http://tinyurl.com/74y2z

• Lake County Record-Bee
• Ruzicka: "The quintessential global citizen"
• International collection of friends remember humanitarian who died in Iraq
• By Elizabeth Larson Record-Bee staff
  
• Saturday, April 23, 2005 - LAKEPORT - Dark skies and rain couldn't keep away those who loved and admired Marla Ruzicka.
  On a stormy Saturday morning, between 700 and 800 people attended the funeral at St. Mary's Catholic Church for the 28-year-old humanitarian and hometown hero who died April 16 when a suicide bomber detonated a car bomb next to the vehicle she was traveling in along a dangerous Baghdad road.
  The effervescent, courageous young woman's lifelong commitment, Fr. Ted Oswald reminded mourners, was one of Christianity's greatest commandments: 'Love thy neighbor as thyself.'
  The day also produced a surprise with the appearance of actor Sean Penn, who has in recent years has become an outspoken critic of the United States' Middle East policies.
  Friends from around the world, along with her family, remembered Ruzicka as a compelling, multi-faceted young woman, whose daring, courage and charm and fondness for salsa dancing co-existed with an underlying struggle to love herself.
  Oswald officiated at a three hour-long funeral Mass and memorial service that began with a blessing over the elegant, angular wooden casket that carried Ruzicka's body, which the family reported U.S. military officials, the Open Institute Society and the Soros Foundation Network helped bring home.
  During his homily, Oswald said, "Marla struggled just like the rest of us to live a life of faith, of hope, of love." And she did so, he said, in a "not so quiet" way, a comment which elicited laughter from those who were familiar with the charismatic young activist's outspokenness.
  Having spent 11 years in police work, Oswald said he tends to "look for clues" in how people lead their lives. In Ruzicka's case, he urged those who knew her to look at what she produced in her all-too-short life.
  "It's so sad that it takes a young girl's death for us to believe all those unbelievable and fantastic things she did," he said. "What a life." He added, to much applause, "There is no doubt in my mind that the good Lord has his hands full right now. Not only does he have his hands full but Heaven will never be the same."
  Medea Benjamin, co-director of San Francisco-based Global Exchange, a nonprofit human rights organization Ruzicka worked for before she founded Campaign for Innocent Victims of Conflict (CIVIC), offered a vibrant, loving tribute to Ruzicka, calling her “the quintessential global citizen.”
  Though Ruzicka said she “didn't do foreign languages,” Benjamin recounted, she didn¹t need to. ”Marla had the universal language, and it’s the language of love,” Benjamin said. “She took it everywhere she went.”
  It was Benjamin who introduced Penn, who spoke briefly to express his sorrow for Ruzicka¹s death.
  Colby Smart, who grew up with Ruzicka and called her “one of my oldest and closest friends,” said of her, “Over the course of the last week Marla succeeded at what I think she will always be known for - bringing people together.”
  Smart said he last saw her in August 2004, when they went camping in Fort Bragg. The fatigue of her mission was starting to show on her young face, he said.
  More than just an activist, Smart explained, Ruzicka “had indeed become a sort of compass,” who, through her work, reminded people of their humanity.
  U.S. Sen. Barbara Boxer and her daughter, Nicole, were the last to eulogize Ruzicka. Nicole Boxer - who had become friends over the last few years with Ruzicka - promised to help keep her friend’s work alive.
  Barbara Boxer said Ruzicka had given herself - and the world - a tough assignment: Being responsible for the tragedies of others. “Marla does not give us permission to look away now,” she said.
  
• A full report on the funeral will be published in the Tuesday print edition of the Lake County Record-Bee.
  

Humanitarian Crisis - Again - WHY?

Darfur, Sudan

• At the Urls Below you will find Transcripts and Audio to Reports about Darfur and Sudan and the Humanitarian Crisis that Exists there! You 'Must' ask yourselves Why[?] do we keep having these Tragedies on the African Continent, Why[?] the so called 1st World Nations allow this to Continue and not give the Help Needed, both Political and Economical [as in the World Business Community] to bring this Huge Continent, and it's People, Forward!

• Military Observer Outlines Continuing Attacks in Darfur Dispatched to the war-ravaged Sudanese province of Darfur to monitor ceasefire violations, former U.S. Marine Capt. Brian Steidle quickly accumulated hundreds of photographs of abuse, torture and atrocities taking place in the region, many at the hands of Sudanese government soldiers. Steidle discusses his mission and the attacks he witnessed while patrolling with African Union peacekeeping troops.

http://tinyurl.com/896ct

• The Origins of the Darfur Crisis The conflict in Darfur dates back to early 2003 when black Africans from Darfur rebelled against the country's Arab Muslim leadership demanding a power-sharing government. The Sudanese government retaliated by sending in government forces to quell the rebellion. The government also reportedly organized and supplied the Janjaweed militia to combat the rebels.

http://tinyurl.com/b8m3k

• Darfur's Refugees A look at a refugee camp in Chad, steps away from Sudan's border, where 10,000 Sudanese refugees have fled ethnic cleansing in their country's Darfur region.

http://tinyurl.com/akfh2

• Humanitarian Crisis A report on the growing humanitarian crisis in Darfur, where an estimated 10,000 black Africans have been killed by Arab militias

http://tinyurl.com/9gwu9