We can't tell you how inspiring the outpouring of emotion for Marla Ruzicka and her co-worker Faiz Ali Salim has been. It is a testament to Marla's short life that so many have asked what they can do to honor her memory, the way she lived every moment out loud, her purity of heart, her dazzling spirit, her eloquent fearlessness, her loving and supportive family and her life's work. For Marla there was no separation between private life and work—both were passionately intertwined in an endless quest to help others. In asking ourselves, "What would Marla really want from each of us, what would honor her best?" the answer is clear: Continue the work she began.
In the San Francisco Bay Area, we will honor and celebrate Marla's life with a memorial on Tuesday, May 3 at 7:30 PM at the Women's Building.
Additionally, there are several ways that you can promote Marla's work and draw attention to the issue of civilian casualties of war:
*Visit the website for the organization Marla founded, The Campaign for Innocent Victims of Conflict (CIVIC) http://www.civicworldwide.org, and make a donation in her memory.
*Get educated about the critical issue of non-combatant civilian deaths (civilian casualties). You can learn about this through the following websites: http://www.iraqbodycount.net, http://www.globalexchange.org, http://www.codepinkalert.org and http://www.occupationwatch.org.
*Organze or attend a vigil on May 3rd in honor of Marla and Faiz. Marla's organization, CIVIC, is asking communities to organize vigils to commemorate the tens of thousands of innocent Iraqis and Afghans who've been killed or injured in war. Click here to find out more.
*Move to action here at home: Make a phone call, send an e-mail or even a fax to your member of Congress. Ask them, in Marla's name, to push for legislation to record civilian casualties, to make these records public, and to compensate innocent victims of war.
Click here to read Medea Benjamin and Kevin Danaher's "Remembering a friend killed in Iraq, Marla Ruzicka"
