Wednesday, November 26, 2003
|
Wednesday, November 26, 2003 |
|
Local woman working in Baghdad Some Peachtree City residents have been working hard in Baghdad over the past few months helping with the ongoing transition in Iraq. Among them is Marian Spencer, chief of the Distinguished Visitors Bureau for the Coalition Provisional Authority. Her job has been to coordinate all visits by such people as members of Congress and the Cabinet. “We have hosted close to 30 percent of Congress, and the secretaries of State, Defense, Agriculture, Commerce, and many others,” she said recently. “The work has been hard but such a satisfaction to know that I am contributing even if in a small way to the freedom of the Iraqi people by showing the DVs the real progress of Iraq and the contributions of the coalition military.” Spencer’s “office” is in a former palace in Baghdad, where she works alongside members of the U.S. military, whom she praises for their tireless and dangerous work. “The soldiers participating in Iraqi Freedom are the true heroes of this place as are the civilians working in CPA,” she said. “Every American would be proud to spend just one minute with the soldiers over here and seeing their attitudes of cooperation, hospitality and bravery. It’s because of them that the rest of us can do our work.” Despite the real fears that are naturally associated with war, Spencer hopes that people in the United States can discover how much better things are progressing in Iraq than what is often portrayed through the national media. “It is sad and tragic that we have lost so many at the hands of a few radicals or terrorists trying to disrupt the good being done here,” said Spencer, who lost a friend in the Al Rashid Hotel attack. “But the astounding majority of Iraqi people want us here, contrary to what picture is being painted back in the U.S. “It only takes a second to go into Baghdad and see the children going back to school in a free society and not the dictatorship they had before. These children are the future of Iraq, and what a future they can now look forward to.” Spencer will return to her home in the Honeysuckle Ridge subdivision in a few weeks, in time for Christmas. “It has been one of the most awesome experiences of my life,” she said of her time in Iraq. “I would stay if it weren’t for my son and my life in Peachtree City.”
|
||