CNN.com - Humanitarian group founder killed in Iraq - Apr 17, 2005

About a year ago I was in Thailand waiting for my contact to arrive at my hotel to take me to a CPI project site on the Thai-Burma border.

I was watching a CNN International program on Iraq and what caught my attention (naturally) was a new organization working with Iraqi victims of war called CIVIC. Their founder, a young, dynamic woman was being interviewed and I was inspired. Marla Ruzicka had the same spirit as my colleagues at CPI, was around the same age as us and reminded me of my wife, Martha.

She was one of us!

I emailed her when I got back to the States and said that I would love to meet her in DC sometime and talk shop. She emailed me back and agreed it would be a good thing for us to compare notes sometime, but was heading back to Iraq.

Marla was killed in Iraq yesterday by a car bomb and the world has lost a true hero. I admired Marla. I never met her, but I am as sad as I post this blog as if I lost a friend.

She was one of us.