Commentary
Oregon Daily Emerald
Wednesday, April 20, 2005
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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.
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