[Congressional Record Volume 153, Number 44 (Wednesday, March 14, 2007)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E547]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                        TRIBUTE TO FERN HOLLAND

                                 ______
                                 

                        HON. SUE WILKINS MYRICK

                           of north carolina

                    in the house of representatives

                       Wednesday, March 14, 2007

  Mrs. MYRICK. Madam Speaker, I would like to honor and recognize a 
true American hero, Fern Holland. Three years ago, Fern gave her life 
so that others might have a brighter future. One of my staffers was 
friends with Fern and wrote this tribute on the three year anniversary 
of her death:
  On March 9, 2004, my friend, Fern Holland was killed--assassination-
style--in Iraq. She, her colleague, and a translator were stopped at a 
checkpoint where they were shot by gunmen posing as Iraqi police. These 
gunmen riddled their car with AK-47 bullets and took her life.
  Fern wasn't killed because she was a soldier. She was killed because 
she was someone cared about other people.
  When Baghdad fell, Fern traveled to Iraq to work for USAID and then 
later served on the Coalition Provisional Authority as a women's rights 
specialist. It was this work that made her a target by extremists. You 
see, Fern worked tirelessly at setting up Iraqi women's centers around 
the country. These centers were places women could organize, learn 
political skills to participate in a democracy, and learn life skills. 
These centers were not welcome by many extremists for a variety of 
reasons, and Fern was an easy target because she was white and blonde 
and very outspoken in her quest for women's rights in Iraq.
  While she was doing this work, even more important work came to the 
forefront. Fern, 33 from Oklahoma, was a lawyer by trade, and she 
helped draft the interim Iraqi constitution. It was Fern Holland who 
wrote the section of the constitution that got Iraqi women 25 percent 
of the seats in the national assembly.
  On March 8, 2004, Iraqi leaders signed the interim constitution that 
included Fern's provision. Women in Iraq now had more than just a seat 
at the table, they had a say in Iraq's future. Fern was able to see her 
hard work come to fruition, but only for a day. Her work on behalf of 
people she did not know, and who did not know her, led to her death.
  In February 2003, I met Fern. I was looking for a place on the Hill 
as a young staffer, and I wound up subleasing her room while she went 
to work on projects in Africa. She had worked previously in the Peace 
Corps in Africa and headed back to continue the work she had started 
when I took over her lease. Her work in Africa led to the establishment 
of a legal clinic for women who had been sexually exploited. At the 
time of her death in 2004, the clinic had handled 118 cases including 
rapes, sexual assaults, wife beatings, family abandonment and sexual 
exploitation.

  From time to time, Fern would come back to the U.S. and would stop by 
the house to pick up her mail, chat about what she was doing, make sure 
her car was still working, and then would head back out into the world 
to battle for what she believed. Several months prior to her death we 
chatted and I took over her lease and paid for her desk and other items 
she had left in the room that I now use. From time to time, when I get 
a chance to slow down, I look around and think about Fern.
  Today, three years later, I don't tear up as much as I once did, but 
the sadness is just as real, and my heart is just as heavy, as it was 
when I got the call about her death from my roommate Michael. Questions 
still flood my mind as to why such evil would happen to such a good 
person. . . . I often think in deep silence about the Iraq War and the 
sacrifices of Fern and those who serve there . . . I wonder why God 
allowed Fern and my path to cross--if only for a brief time--yet thank 
Him at the same time that I got to meet her.
  Fern's life has taught me many things. I have learned to love people 
more. It is really easy to get cynical about work and life on the Hill 
when things move at a snails pace, or when you see that people's main 
motives are something other than helping people. But when I catch 
myself in a poor attitude or in a cycle of cynicism, I think of Fern 
and her sacrifices and realize there is more work to be done to help 
others. Fern's life also taught me my time is not my own. I constantly 
try to keep in contact with friends/family--and would do anything in 
the world for them--and I try to reach out to people in need. I have 
learned that the most important things in this world are the small 
things people often overlook. I learned that people need other people 
and so I take the time to speak with someone longer than I would 
normally, or return calls or emails when I am tired or would rather 
not. I invest in people because it seems friendships and helping others 
is the only return that makes me happy. I think that is the secret of 
life that Fern learned and shared with others.
  Today has just begun, yet my thoughts are constantly bouncing back to 
Fern and to a quote from Martin Luther King Jr. that I can't get out of 
my head: ``A man who won't die for something is not fit to live.'' In 
one of Fern's last emails she wrote, ``I love the work and if I die, 
know that I'm doing precisely what I want to be doing--working to 
organize and educate human rights activists and women's groups.'' In a 
day an age where people think only of themselves, Fern was willing to 
die for something she believed in; people. And because of that, her 
life and work means something . . . it means others can live in a 
better world.
  We tend to throw around the word ``hero'' alot these days. But I have 
learned that they are not on the sports field or on the TV or on the 
movie screen. They are the people who sacrifice for others; who die for 
others if need be. Fern Holland will forever be one of my heroes. And I 
wrote this today so that others might know the work she did, and the 
life she led, because Fern deserves to be remembered.

                          ____________________