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Commentary Oregon Daily Emerald Wednesday, April 20, 2005 NEWS STAFF (541)346-5511 JEN SlIDICK EDITOR IN CHIEF STEVEN R. NEUMAN MANAGING EDITOR IARED PABEN AYISUA YAUYA NEWS EDITORS MEGHANN CUNIFF I’ARKER HOWELL SENIOR NEWS REPORTERS MORIAH BALINGrr AMANDA BOLSINGER ADAM CHERRY EMILY SMITH EVA SYLWESTER SHELDON TRAVER NEWS REPORTERS CIAYTON (ONES SPORTS EDITOR JON ROETMAN SENIOR SPORTS REPORTER STEPHEN MILLER BRIAN SMITH SPORTS REPORTERS RYAN NYBURG PULSE EDITOR AMY LICHTY SENIOR PULSE REPORTER JOSHUA LINTEREUR PULSE REPORTER CAT BALDWIN PULSE CARTOONIST A]LEE SIATER COMMENTARY EDITOR GABE BRADLEY ANNEMARIE KNF.PPER CHUCK SLOTHOWER JENNIFER MCBRIDE COLUMNISTS ASHLEY GRIFFIN SUPPLEMENT FREELANCE EDITOR DANIELLE HICKEY PHOTO EDITOR I All REN WIMER SENIOR PHOTOGRAPHER NICOLE BARKER T IM BOBOSKY PHOTOGRAPHER KATE HORTON ZANERHT PART-TIME PHOTOGRAPHERS BRET FURTWANGLER GRAPHIC ARTIST DUSTIN REESE SENIOR DESIGNER ELLIOTT ASBURY WENDY KIEFFER AMANDA LEE IONAH SCHROG1N DESIGNERS SHADRA BEESLEY JEANNIE EVERS COPY CHIEFS KIMBERLY BLACKFIF.LD PAULTHOMPSON SPORTS COPY EDITORS GREG BILS1AND AMBER LINDROS NEWS COPY EDITORS JENNY GERWICK PULSE COPY EDITOR ADRIENNE NELSON ONLINE EDITOR WEBMASTER (541)346-5511 JUDY R1EDL GENERAL MANAGER KATHY CARBONE BUSINESS MANAGER IAUNA DE GIUSTI RECEPTIONIST JERED NAGEL PATRICK SCHMERBER HOJXY STEIN JANA SWANSON ROB WEGNER CAROLYN ZIMMERMAN DISTRIBUTION ADVERTISING (541)346-3712 MELISSA GUST ADVERTISING DIRECTOR TYLER MACK SALES MANAGER MATT BETZ HERON CALISCH-DOLEN MEGAN HAMLIN KATE HIRONAKA MAEGAN KASER-LEE KELLEE KAUFTHEIL MIA LEIDELMEYER SHANNON ROGERS SALES REPRESENTATIVES CLASSIFIED (541)3464343 TRINA SHANAMAN CLASSIFIED MANAGER KORALYNN BASHAM ANDO KAFY GAGNON KER1 SPANGLER KATIE STRINGER CLASSIFIED ADVERTISING ASSOCIATES PRODUCTION (541)3464381 MICHELE ROSS PRODUCTION MANAGER TARA <il HAM PRODUCTION COORDINATOR JEN CRAM LET KRISTEN DICHARRY CAMERON GAUT SABRINA GOWETTE JONAH SCHROGIN DESIGNERS The Oregon Daily Emerald is pu6 lished daily Monday through Fri day during the school year by the Oregon Daily Emerald Publishing Co. Inc., at the University of Ore gon, Eugene, Ore. The Emerald operates independently of the University with offices in Suite 300 of the Erb Memorial Union. The Emerald is private property. Unlawful removal or use of papers is prosecutable by law FyftTWi'SLER BretFurtwangler | Graphic artist ■ In my opinion Ode to a true activist “Heroine n. 1. A woman noted for courageous acts. 2. A woman noted for special achievements in her field.” — Webster’s II New College Dictionary. On Saturday, April 16, America lost one of its brightest stars. You may not have known her name or been touched by what she did, but she worked on your behalf all the same. She deserves to be mourned; she deserves to be remembered. Her name was Marla Ruzicka, and she was only 28 years old. Since the age of fifteen, she had been involved in activist work, helping humanitarian causes from China to Honduras. She died in Iraq still trying to save the world, racing along one of the most dangerous streets without a single piece of armor. The doctors found her at the scene, burns covering 90 percent of her body. Her last two words: “I’m alive.” For some people, it’s not enough to make fiery speeches or buy bumper stickers or wave placards on the high way shouting “Honk if you hate war! ” She didn’t even content herself with writing snooty columns in some college newspaper. Instead, when she learned that the Pentagon wasn’t counting civilian casualties in Afghanistan, she left her cozy home in California to count them herself. She had worked on behalf of dead and injured civilians of war since December 2001. “In war, innocent civilians should not be hurt. It happens. Now, we have to see what you do to help the JENNIFER MCBRIDE QUASHING DISSENT families that were hurt,” Ruzicka told NPR in a 2002 interview. Ruzicka’s irrepressible good nature led her to form a non-profit organiza tion called the “Campaign for Inno cent Victims In Conflict.” As part of the process of counting civilian casu alties, she went door to door and hos pital to hospital, speaking directly to the injured and the families of people deemed “collateral damage.” Lacking the money for an office, Ruzicka of ten slept on the couches of journalists or other humanitarian workers in Kabul and Baghdad. Despite a lack of funding, Ruzicka managed to contact and catalog over 2000 families who had lost one of their own to the war in Afghanistan. She also confirmed the deaths of 800 civilians killed by American air strikes. In Iraq, Ruzicka had just be gun her work. Before her death, she successfully lobbied in Congress to give families of people killed in Afghanistan and Iraq almost $13 million in compensation. She hoped the money could be spent on hospitalization and reconstruction. Even after doing so much more than her share, Ruzicka kept on counting, not only the people Americans killed, but the people who were caught in Iraqi insurgents’ crossfire as well. Beyond politics, she wanted to make sure each and every or phaned child had a name in her files. A few days later and she would have been back in the United States, fundraising and out of danger. Marla Ruzicka was killed in the line of duty. She wasn’t even a tar get. She was on her way to visit yet another injured child when suicide bombers caught her vehicle. It was only by chance that she was driving next to a convoy full of contractors. She was just another person to be sacrificed for the greater goal. The guerilla armies must be celebrating, as they have killed yet another well intentioned person with white skin. As perhaps is fitting, she died side by side with her longtime Iraqi part ner, Faiz Ali Salim. Marla Ruzicka touched so many and worked so hard. To me, she represents every thing good and pure that is soiled by violence and repression. I can think of no greater eulogy than her own words: “Yes, a number is important ... but not as important as realizing each number is a human life. ” She had a special kind of courage that I can never match. Goodbye, Marla Ruzicka. We have truly lost an angel to God’s sweet embrace. jennifermcbride@ dailyemerald. com INBOX Organ donors should be first to receive organs More than half of the people who need an organ transplant in the Unit ed States die before they get one. Most of these deaths are needless. Americans bury or cremate about 20,000 life-saving organs every year. There is a simple solution to the organ shortage — give organs first to people who have agreed to donate their own organs when they die. This will convince more people to sign donor cards and will also make the organ allocation system fairer. About 70 percent of the organs transplanted in the United States go to people who haven’t agreed to donate their own organs when they die. Anyone who wants to donate their organs to others who have agreed to donate theirs can join Life Sharers at www.lifesharers.com. David J. Undis Nashville TN ■ Editorial Housing not responsible for its slew of problems Earlier this year, after the 2004 Princeton Re view rated our university No. 1 for “dorms like dungeons,” the Emerald wrote in an editorial that such a low rank was no surprise and that cre ating a new Living Learning Center while ignor ing the decrepit conditions of our older residence halls badly in need of renovation was a problem. Our blame was misplaced. Unfortunately, we now know that University Housing is plagued by problems — not of its own making — that are simply of a much wider scope than unattractive prison-esque building styles. University Housing is required to pay the Uni versity more than $250,000 in overhead fees each year, representing one of many auxiliary enter prises that helps relieve the University of over head costs. University Housing money is also se riously drained by mandatory payments to the consolidated debt pool, a fund put in place to help small schools within the Oregon University System construct and renovate residence halls. Being a part of this pool means it is economically beneficial for the University to build new resi dence halls rather than renovate old ones be cause only increased occupancy will cause the debt fund to gain revenue. Additionally, the Uni versity apparently has no qualms about un scrupulously acquiring property using housing money, then using that property for a non-hous ing purpose, adding further trauma to a depart ment that is unwillingly hemorrhaging funds. It’s easy to see the convoluted state of current University Housing, but it’s also easy to see that it is hardly housing’s fault. The University requires housing to pay extensive overhead fees when the housing department itself is in desperate need of its rightful revenue. It is especially significant to note that the University is currently designing a $160 million basketball arena. This fiscal decision makes it perfectly clear that the problem is not lack of money, but lack of proper priority. It is un fair that students paying money to live in Univer sity dorms are actually paying money to create a sports stadium. Likewise, it hardly seems fair in the case of east campus neighborhoods that once University Housing has purchased and renovated property, that space could then be used by the University for a completely unrelated purpose. If housing made an investment in any property, they are due all possible return on that investment. University Housing is being treated like a real estate agent, required to purchase property for clients out of its own pocketbook. Housing is stretched in too many directions. It must pay funds toward the consolidated debt pool and buy real estate that is not even going to ward housing projects, not to mention day to day wages and repairs. The least the University can do is end the indirect overhead assessment on housing until it can pay back the money owed to housing from previous property investments. It’s a question of how student money can best be spent. Students living in University Housing should be paying for exactly that: University housing. Yes, University Housing and the Univer sity in general should be a cohesive unit; howev er, it is unjust to ask housing, and the students paying for that service, to extend their already tight funds toward unnecessary overhead fees and unrelated areas of University growth. OREGON DAILY EMERALD LETTERS POLICY Letters to the editor and guest commentaries are encouraged, and should be sent to letters@dailyemerald.com or submitted at the Oregon Daily Emer ald office, EMU Suite 300. Electronic submissions are preferred L etters are limited to 250 words, and guest commentaries to 550 words. Authors are limited to one submission per calendar month. Submissions should include phone number and address for verification. The Emerald reserves the right to edit for space, grammar and style. Guest submissions are pub lished at the discretion of the Emerald.
