FEATURED ARTICLES
- Sailor Protest of Pablo Paredes
- Why Numbers Matter, By Marla Ruzicka, AlterNet
- RHINO'S BOTTOM LINE: The
Life Of Marla Ruzicka
QUOTE OF THE DAY:
"There's no doubt in my mind that the good Lord has his hands full right now."
- - The Rev. Ted Oswald at the funeral Mass for Marla Ruzicka
(Taken from today's Rhino's
Bottom Line)
KNOW YOUR HISTORY:
April 26th
1989 -- Lucille
Ball comedienne/actress dies at 78 of a massive heart attack. Among the better known celebrities blacklisted during the 1950s witch hunts conducted by liberals & conservatives, her experience was atypical in that she recovered her career & popularity. Ball's grandfather had been an old railroad man who idolized Eugene
Debs & convinced young Lucy to register to vote in California as a Communist. Years later when her "crime" was discovered, the blacklisters banned Lucy from the studios, thus ending a promising movie career. She fought back by forming her own production company & making the well-known television series "I Love Lucy."
1998 -- Guatemala: Bishop Juan Gerardi Conedera is assassinated, 2 days after release of a report blaming U.S.-backed Guatemalan military governments for hundreds of thousands of deaths in the 1980s.
RHINO HERE:
Today The Rhino directs your attention to a true heroine of the peace movement, and a real life American patriot and hero. One, Pablo
Parades, may be headed for jail, and the other, Marla Ruzicka, sadly paid the ultimate price for her passionate activism.
(o/)(o/)(o/)
Sailor Protest of Pablo Paredes
Navy petty officer in San Diego refuses war duty
On December 6, 2004, 23 year old Pablo Paredes, a Navy Petty Officer 3rd Class, refused to board his ship taking 3,000 Marines to Iraq. He showed up on the pier in San Diego wearing a t-shirt that read: „Like a Cabinet Member, I Resign.‰ The Navy announced in March that Pablo will face a special court-martial, the military equivalent of a civilian misdemeanor trial. He faces a maximum of one year in jail, a forfeiture of pay, reduction in rank, and a bad-conduct discharge if he is convicted. Pablo continues to speak out despite the potential punishment from the Navy. He has chosen to present a conscientious objection to serving in war.
Petty Officer Parades is going to be court-martialed on May 11th for refusing to go to Iraq. He is asking for some big name, well known people who can help draw a big crowd and generate some high visibility in the media for an event he is organizing on May 10th. He‚s willing to go to jail instead of going to Iraq and wants his doing so to be seen and heard by as many people as possible. Parades will speak at the May 10 San Diego event along with Camilo Mejia and Aidan Delgado. There will be a Mock Trial outside the base to protest the Courts Martial.
If you are in a position to assist Rhino encourages you to do so. Here's his
contact info:
EMAIL: p_didhe@hotmail.com
WEB ADDRESS: Citizens For Pablo
http://www.swiftsmartveterans.com
(o/)(o/)(o/)
Last week, 28-year-old humanitarian aid worker Marla Ruzicka was killed Saturday in Baghdad when a suicide bomber aiming for a convoy of contractors pulled alongside her vehicle and detonated his explosives. Just before her death, Ms. Ruzicka, a heroine and an angel from all accounts, wrote about the importance of recording and publicly releasing Iraqi civilian casualty numbers. That article is excerpted & linked below, followed by a host of links to testimonials to her life. To begin, is an excerpt from a note my friend David Frankel wrote about his friend Marla. Drop him an email if you‚d like to read it all.
About Marla
by David Frankel (dfrankel@igc.org)
...Let's get the word out - Marla Ruzicka was not wasting time. She went
to the hardest, most difficult spot and showed up - a Blond, thin, smiling,
brown-eyed American in a sun dress - and running shoes - here to help. She
found out that no American had attended any of the funerals for innocent people
killed in the bombing of Iraq and went to the next funeral which was that very
afternoon. There are Iraqi babies named "Marla".
Let us be inspired. Marla was active on each and every single issue she
found out about- what, AIDS? - boom, she goes to Africa; meets the people;
helps connect people who can help each other and helped the people by making
them part of her (what some would have called "privileged") life.
Marla lived the expression of appreciation. She profusely thanked each and every person who worked with her and it almost seemed like she was thanking the people she was helping - I don't know, maybe for giving her the chance to be at her highest and best self. She was and is an angel...
(o/)(o/)(o/)
Why Numbers Matter
By Marla Ruzicka, AlterNet, April 20, 2005
BAGHDAD - In my two years in Iraq, the one question I am asked the most is: "How many Iraqi civilians have been killed by American forces?" The American public has a right to know how many Iraqis have lost their lives since the start of the war and as hostilities continue.
In a news conference at Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan in March 2002, Gen. Tommy Franks said, "We don't do body counts." His words outraged the Arab world and damaged the U.S. claim that its forces go to great lengths to minimize civilian casualties.
During the Iraq war, as U.S. troops pushed toward Baghdad, counting civilian casualties was not a priority for the military. However, since May 1, 2003, when President Bush declared major combat operations over and the U.S. military moved into a phase referred to as "stability operations," most units began to keep track of Iraqi civilians killed at checkpoints or during foot patrols by U.S. soldiers.
Here in Baghdad, a brigadier general commander explained to me that it is standard operating procedure for U.S. troops to file a spot report when they shoot a non-combatant. It is in the military's interest to release these statistics...
READ THE REST AT & OTHER ARTICLES BY MARLA RUZICKA AT:
http://www.alternet.org/waroniraq/21799
(o/)(o/)(o/)
10:52:06 AM 
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