Bob Herbert wrote this beautiful and powerful tribute to the work and memory of Marla Ruzicka who refused to let victims of war go unacknowledged, uncounted, unremembered. She was killed a week ago Saturday in Iraq.
This is from his New York Times piece:
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.
It is such a mistake to mask the costs of war — financial and in terms of human lives lost on all sides.
My colleague Peter Bergen just sent this to me noting a Senate Memorial Service in honor of Marla Ruzicka:
The Memorial Service for Marla in Washington, DC, is now scheduled for Saturday, May 14, from 2-4pm, in the Russell Senate Caucus Room (Room 325), at the U.S. Senate.
Senator Leahy plans to host this Service, and we expect a very large group of friends and supporters of Marla’s to participate. It is a big room because as we all know, Marla made friends with everyone she met, and we hope that any of you who are able will come.
Please forward this email to anyone who you think might want to learn about Marla’s life and work and to remember her in this way.
For those of you want to remember someone the nation should feel very proud of, please feel free to join this gathering on May 14.
— Steve Clemons
