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Marla Rusicka, Human
Rights Activist
by Derrel Myers / May 2005 issue of Socialist Action
With some reservation my wife Naomi and I began a gloomy Saturday
morning driving 2 1/2 hours from San Francisco to Lakeport, Calif., to
attend the funeral
of our friend Marla Rusicka.
We’ve had more than our share of memorials for loving and courageous
youth, and Marla’s death (at age 28) was the third such tragedy in less
than four months. That it was to be
celebrated in a religious mass in the heartland of conservative rural
California was, in my opinion, not promising to fully honor the life and work
of this dedicated antiwar and human rights activist, this bold and
effervescent feminist rebel.
Marla and her Iraqi colleague, Faiz Ali Salim, were killed on April
16 in Baghdad by a roadside bomb in the course of their work calling
attention to the unbearable loss and suffering of the civilian victims of
the U.S. invasion and occupation of Iraq. They agitated the U.S. military
and government to
acknowledge, and to take responsibility for this humanitarian
crisis.
While still a student at Clearlake High School, Marla sometimes
drove a 120 miles to the Global Exchange office in San Francisco, returning
armed with
"subversive" literature and speakers to awaken her sleepy
hometown of Lakeport to a world of change.
Marla devoted her adult life to aiding victims of
disease, war and injustice in the U.S., Zimbabwe, Cuba, Palestine,
Nicaragua, Afghanistan, and Iraq. To Marla, no one on earth was a stranger,
no one unworthy of justice.
Although we arrived an hour early, the church had already filled
with Marla’s bereaved family, friends, colleagues, and international media.
Standing for
hours in a drizzle in a parking lot, observing a religious ceremony
on big-screen television was not my idea of honoring a fallen friend.
When the pastor, an avowed 11-year veteran of the local police
department, insisted that after the mass guest speakers not bring politics
into his church, my spirits sank even deeper. What was Marla’s life about if
not politics?
Then I saw her smiling face on the printed program, and below her
picture the words of Che Guevara, "The true revolutionary is guided by
a great feeling of
love." I knew then it was going to be a real celebration of
Marla.
After the celebration of the mass, siblings, lovers, friends,
renowned journalists, fellow activists, and Vietnam War veterans, boldly
brought into that church the "politics" of Marla Rusicka—the
politics of love, solidarity, compassion, peace and justice. Jesus himself
would have been inspired.
As I listened attentively to each eloquent, inspired speaker, I
observed the hundreds of local residents gathered in the church and the
parking lot to honor
their ambassador to the world. I’ve never seen such pride, such
applause, such heartfelt approval of the "politics" of the Marlas
of the world in a small rural California town.
On the drive home to San Francisco, I thought of the young Marla
driving the same road on a journey to unite her people of Lakeport with the
rest of
humanity. I’m sure she couldn’t imagine then how important her
travels would be.
The beautiful wildflowers covering the hills in great profusion
reminded me of the tenacity of life, and of the words of Arundhati Roy and
the "Internationale,"
the anthem of world revolution. A new and better world is in birth,
and on a quiet day you can hear her breathing even in a small
conservative town in
northern California.
Marla y Faiz Presente!
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