“Act your shoe size, not your age,” these are the words of a 15-year-old Oliver Leighton in a report he wrote about his aunt, Marla Ruzicka.
April 16 marked four years since she was killed by suicide bombers on Airport Road in Iraq.
The 28-year-old-woman was a born activist. She is responsible for founding Campaign for Innocent Victims in Conflict (CIVIC).
“Her vision and spirit live on in our daily work,” Marla Keenan, associate director of CIVIC wrote in an e-mail on the four-year anniversary of Marla Ruzicka”s death.
The fact that she died is not nearly as important as the fact that she lived. She spent her adult life taking chances and looking death in the face.
Her mother, Nancy Ruzicka, graciously shared the story of Marla”s short, but meaningful life with me.
I immediately appreciated Marla”s spirit and self-assurance when Nancy told me that Marla, at 9 years old, posed as a 12-year-old to get a job at the Record-Bee as a paper carrier.
“She was a born leader. She initiated protests against the first Gulf War at Terrace Middle School,” Nancy said. During a yard sale to raise money for civilian victims of war, an elementary school-age Marla sold her mother”s electric can opener. “They need the money more than you do,” she told her mother emphatically.
Her sister, Jill Ruzicka, 44, said Marla was simply confident.
“She was just as comfortable chasing down Donald Rumsfeld in the Capitol as she was when she was younger, running after answers from a teacher or principal in Lakeport,” Jill said. Jill and Marla had plans to meet in New York for four days on May 19, 2005.
“I had the itinerary on my computer screen. I was so excited to see her. I was 12 when she was born. This was our chance to have that adult sibling relationship that we were nurturing and developing over the phone and by e-mail,” Jill said.
Most families know each other intimately and can relate memories, stories and contributions.
The whole world knew Marla.
Sean Penn said he counts Marla as one of his heroes. He attended her funeral with more than 1,000 others from all corners of the globe.
Senator Patrick Leahy said that a person who knew her well described her as “being as close to a living saint as they come, I suspect that is how many of us feel. Speaking for myself, I have never met, nor do I expect to meet again, someone so young who gave so much of herself to so many people, and who made such a difference doing it.”
Recently President Obama included funding for the Marla Ruzicka Iraqi War Victims Fund in his budget request to Congress.
Marla Ann Ruzicka was born on New Year”s Eve, weighing in at 3-pounds and 3-ounces, half the size of her twin brother Mark.
Marla”s biography, “Sweet Relief: The Marla Ruzicka Story,” authored by Jennifer Abrahamson (Simon and Schuster, 2006), is an amazing read, especially for Lake County residents who will recognize names of businesses, locations and people and for the rest of the world because Marla was such a rare human being, absent of apathy.
Marla Ruzicka exemplified what it means to live deliberately with grace, humanity and might all at once.
She left a legacy of humanitarianism that inspired and confronted Lakeport and then the world with her innate, unparalleled, unbridled, fearless, self-assured desire to do good, a real hometown hero. To learn more about the organization CIVIC: call (202) 558-6958, e-mail info@civicworldwide.org or visit the Web site www.civicworldwide.org.
For more information about Marla Ruzicka”s story go to: scu.edu/ethics/architects-of-peace/Ruzicka, www.imdb.com, soros.org.
Mandy Feder is the Record-Bee news editor. She can be reached at mandyfeder@yahoo.com or 263-5636 Ext. 32.
