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Marla Showed Us Another World is Possible

Marla RuzickaI never knew Marla Ruzicka. Reading about the incredible things she’s accomplished in her short 28 years on this planet has to move even the most jaded anti-warrior and war supporter alike. Marla committed her life to bringing some semblance of justice to those civilian causalities (“collateral damage”) caught in the war zones of Afghanistan and Iraq. Doing the job our government refuses to, she went to Iraq going door-to-door to count, take names and hear people’s stories of loss. Armed with this information, she went to Washington and lobbied for repatriations for those civilians. It’s with sad irony that Marla was killed yesterday by a suicide bomb on the road out of Baghdad. She’s a NorCal native and grew her social justice skills at Global Exchange here in San Francisco. From the things I’ve read, her selflessness is rivaled only by her compassion and commitment to making life a little better for others. The organization she birthed, Campaign for Innocent Victims in Conflict (CIVIC), will no doubt continue Marla’s miracle mission of realizing another world is possible.

Empirically Speaking

Loving Empire Notes. It’s definitely on my daily read list.

“Let’s sum up the transfer of sovereignty. The United States keeps 14 military bases, at least 130,000 troops. It also keeps control of the new Iraqi military (which is to be under the command of Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez). It keeps control of the purse-strings. UN Security Council Resolution 1483 gives the United States (the “coalition”) total control over Iraq’s oil revenue — it goes into a bank account labeled the Iraq Development Fund administered by the Coalition Provisional Authority.

So, the new sovereign government of Iraq will have a military controlled by a foreign power, will be occupied by a foreign military, will have no revenues, and “will not need law-making authority.” An interesting definition of sovereignty.”

Completely unrelated, yesterday was free cone day at Ben & Jerry’s. I checked out the Haight street store during yesterday’s unusual heat wave. A line of beautiful shiny people were queued up waiting for their free booty. Just inside, a DJ was spinning bad 80’s music, but keeping the vibe alive. I got an oversized Chunky Monkey cone (for breakfast!). One cool thing I noticed, Rock the Vote volunteers were on-hand registering the captive audience to vote. Looks like they were doing brisk business. There is hope yet!