Elenamary

Whenever I get frustrated with “the fight”, My friend Christine will always tell me about her friend Marla. She will tell me about Marla and her courage to keep fighting the good fight no matter the obstacles.

I recently received the following email from Christine:

Friends,

As many of you may already know, a shining light in our
world, and in the fight for humanitarian aid and civil
rights was lost this weekend. Her name was Marla Ruzicka.
She was one of my dearest friends, and I selfishly grieve
for the loss of her in my life. But I know that across the
globe, in war torn countries, lives an even greater void in
the hearts of the people she helped. The whole world has
lost Marla whether we know it or not, and we should all be
grieving now.

She was a truly amazing woman (or as she would say: she
ROCKED). Hell, she mooned the president in the name of
public power and sold beer on the black market to raise
money for wounded civilians: salsa dancing, giggling, and
being unbelieveably effective the whole way. What’s not to
like?

Please take a moment to read a little about her. She would
not want this time to be about her, but she would want us to
use this as an opportunity to remind the world the true cost
of war. Who but Marla was out there counting that cost in
such a real way? Who will pick up where she left off? Her
work and her spirit must continue. Marla took the whole
world into her heart, and made its pain her own, without
ever allowing herself to indulge in cynicism or retreat.

There are hundreds of articles, here’s one:
sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi

Or if you prefer to listen, here’s a piece from Morning Edition:
www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php

Here’s the nonprofit she founded:
www.civicworldwide.org

And the speech given on the Senate floor on Monday by Sen.
Patrick Leahy, a moving testimony:

http://leahy.senate.gov/press/200504/041805a.html

I think a lot of people would think that what she undertook
was crazy. And it was! It’s crazy to have so much optimism.
It’s crazy to believe that it’s possible for a lone unarmed
slender young woman to go traipsing around a war zone
knocking on doors. It’s crazy to believe she could save
people and help families. It’s crazy to think you can just
call up a senator enough times to raise $20 million to help
wounded civilians (a completely unprecedented concept). It’s
crazy to travel around with $20 in your bank account and
think you can raise millions.

But that’s exactly what she did.

Maybe that kind of crazy is just a lack of cynicism, an
optimism that we tend to believe is impossible.

Maybe that’s a kind of crazy we could all benefit from. It’s
the kind of crazy she’s inspired me to strive toward.

Please feel free to repost this message if you know others
who you think would like to know about Marla and her work.

With Peace Love and Solidarity,
Christine

Elenamary, marlas horrible death this weekend just drives home the point I was making last year: she was so radical and wild and made such an amazing difference in ways that only a miniscule % of us ever will, but she would only want us to see taht and take that lesson from her life.

April 28th web blog from elenamary

“It is good to keep your friends close, and your enemies even closer.”

The longer I live and the longer I attempt to change the world, the more
my definition of what it means to be revolutionary changes. I have come
to the conclusion that to really change shit, you have to swallow it
sometimes. I will sit and chat it up with the republican “racist” cuban
bankers in LEON because guess what? they have shit that i can use to
change the world. they have influence and money and the ear of those who
really need to listen. It is in my self-interest, and the self-insterst
of social change to smile and bite my tounge from time to time. It might
suck and not seem all “idealist” and shit. Maybe you can say i am selling
out, but at this point, I am willing to put my personal moral rigidity
aside if i know that it will be pragmatic to do so. IF i am “true to my
ideals” and mouth off to everything that pisses me off (which I did
forever) I will be using all my fuel and prana and chi and whatever you
want to call it to rev my tires and sink deeper into the mud. My friend
marla, who is the most revoluationary and sometimes reactionary person I
have ever met (check out her website, www.civicworldwide.org I promise it
is worth your time), has this to say:

It’s true – just two years ago I was dragged out of the World Affairs
Council when President Bush was speaking. It was his first trip to
California, and I’d bought a ticket to hear him speak. I made my
sarong-type skirt into a banner, and when he started his address, I
unfurled it and jumped on a table and started shouting, ‘Stop the rate
caps now!’ The cops grabbed me and took me out. “These days, I’d rather
have a meeting with President Bush than yell at him.”

This has meant cozying up to a military she had formerly excoriated. “I’m
constantly hitting them up for help, and I have learned that for the most
part, they are anxious to help,” she said. “The Marines have nicknamed me
Cluster Bomb Girl because I would hear of places where they had gone off,
and I would ask them to help me clear the area.”

anyways, this is something that i have been thinking about lately alot.
something ive been getting mad about. Divisions, provicialism, who does
it serve? hasn’t anyone ever watched survivor? The people who win always
manage to create a conflict between people, and then sit back adn watch
someone else get voted out. just mythoughts x