Local gal. The radio is talking about her as we speak.
Slain Lakeport activist long a champion of human rights
Family, admirers worldwide recall Ruzicka's commitment, passion for her work
Tuesday, April 19, 2005
By MIKE GENIELLA
THE PRESS DEMOCRAT
MARLA RUZICKA
Born: Dec. 31, 1977, in Ukiah
Hometown: Lakeport
Former Student Body president: Lakeport Elementary School and Lakeport High School
Graduate: Long Island University
1995: Joined Global Exchange, San Francisco
2001: Visited Afghanistan
2003: Among first aid workers to enter Iraq after the fall of Saddam Hussein.
2004: Founded Campaign for Innocent Victims in Conflict.
LAKEPORT - Even as a child, human rights activist Marla Ruzicka felt strongly about righting wrongs.
At the time, she was growing up in Lakeport, a rural, largely conservative community of fewer than 5,000 where children were expected to mind their manners. That didn't faze Ruzicka, who died Saturday at age 28 in a suicide bombing in Iraq.
"When we were kids, Marla believed if things needed to be changed, you had to stand up and get vocal," said twin brother Mark Ruzicka.
Marla Ruzicka did just that.
At 13, Ruzicka organized a walkout at Lakeport Elementary School in protest of the first Persian Gulf War.
A few years later at Lakeport High School, Ruzicka organized the first environmental club. When the sons of two local school board trustees tried to derail her bid to become student body president, Ruzicka campaigned even harder - and won.
She convinced the school board to establish the first girls' soccer team at the high school.
In between school activities, Ruzicka's budding interest in the plight of the poor and impoverished led her to Cuba. She joined a trip organized for high school students by activist groups, including staff from Friends School, an exclusive private school in Washington. She and others who made the trek were reprimanded by the U.S. government for violating regulations limiting travel to the Caribbean nation.
Those who knew Ruzicka then were not surprised by her subsequent moves to Long Island to attend college, San Francisco where she became involved in Green Party politics and finally to war-torn Iraq and Afghanistan where she worked on behalf of civilians.
Two days after Ruzicka was killed, family, friends and admirers around the world described her as being committed and passionate about her work. Ruzicka founded the Campaign for Innocent Victims in Conflict, or CIVIC, a Washington-based human rights advocacy group.
Jonathan Steele, a writer for London's Guardian newspaper, said Ruzicka was "an unusual mixture of charm, ebullience, adventure-seeking and tireless dedication to helping ordinary people whose lives had been shattered."
Fox News staffers in Iraq posted a message on a Web site Monday describing Ruzicka as "a dedicated and spirited activist for her cause." On the same site, CBS reporter Lee Cowan from Baghdad said Ruzicka was "one of a kind."
In her hometown Monday, Ruzicka's passion and commitment beginning as a little girl also were remembered.
Lori McGuire, a retired Lakeport High teacher, described Ruzicka as a "standout" student.
"Of the 3,000 kids I taught over 26 years, I can honestly say she was one of the rare ones. She's the only one I can remember who took her passions and her beliefs as far as she did," McGuire said.
Ruzicka was a popular student, elected as student body president of both her elementary and high schools. Despite being only 5-foot-3, she was a top basketball player and excelled at soccer as well. She relished her small-town environment.
"Marla loved growing up here in Lakeport, but as she matured, she began to feel confined," her brother said.
By the time she graduated from high school, Ruzicka felt a "need to move on, to become engaged in larger issues," her said.
Standing on the deck of the Ruzicka family's condominium on the western shore of Clear Lake, Mark Ruzicka searched for words to define his sister, who in death garnered the global attention she sought for her organization's efforts to help civilian victims of war in Iraq and Afghanistan.
As twins, they shared the same vibrant physical features that made Marla Ruzicka a standout in any crowd: sun-streaked blonde hair, a glowing tan and a winning smile.
Mark Ruzicka was, however, the "quiet one" of the pair.
"I could never be the one out front. But Marla, that's another story. She was fearless," he said.
Parents Nancy and Cliff Ruzicka are well-known Lakeport residents.
Nancy Ruzicka is a vivacious local travel and real estate agent. Cliff Ruzicka is a soft-spoken man who heads one of the region's biggest engineering consulting firms. Both have been honored as community leaders, including Nancy Ruzicka's recently being named Lake County's woman of the year for her contributions to economic development and as a senior housing advocate.
Although they are registered Republicans, the two always have supported their daughter and her long history of activism.
Cliff Ruzicka said he learned years ago to give his daughter the independence she sought.
"That's just who she was. Growing up she always needed the freedom to be herself, and do what she believed was right," he said.
That was tested when his daughter ventured four years ago into war zones.
"Of course, I really worried about her being in harm's way when she packed up and headed for Afghanistan and Iraq," he said.
But Ruzicka said he understood. "She had to do what she had to do."
Nancy Ruzicka recalled a time when she and her then 8-year-old daughter were staying at the Plaza Hotel in New York City. As a special treat, the hotel's general manager introduced Marla to Barbara and then-Vice President George H.W. Bush.
"She charmed him. I think that was her first lesson in politics," Nancy said.
Marla's brazen encounter years later with President George W. Bush still makes her father chuckle.
The newly elected president arrived to give a speech in Sacramento during the state's energy crisis. Ruzicka, an advocate of publicly owned power, decided to confront him.
When Bush walked by, Ruzicka mooned him. She pulled up her skirt to reveal panties with an anti-Bush statement.
"The startled president snapped, 'Cute,' much to her delight," Cliff said.
As she matured, however, Ruzicka began to rely less and less on that kind of antics to bring attention to her cause.
Instead, she learned how to lobby Congress for about
$10 million in financial aid for civilian victims of the Iraqi war, and to win over U.S. military officials in Iraq and Afghanistan who were in a position to help. She befriended journalists, providing them hard-to-get information in hopes her campaign would receive some public attention.
Ruzicka was just a week away from leaving Iraq on Saturday when a car bomber attacked a convoy of U.S. security contractors that was passing her car on a Baghdad road. The blast killed Ruzicka, her driver-translator and another foreigner.
"The day before she left a voice mail message on our machine," her father recalled.
"I love you Mom and Dad. I'm safe," Ruzicka called out in her usual cheery voice.
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