Eclectic Amateur

24 Hour News 8 talks to relatives of Michigan native soldier killed in Iraq

Two U.S. Marines were killed Wednesday when their helicopter crashed near Ramadi, Iraq. Al-Qaida in Iraq claimed Thursday to have shot down the chopper. The military said the helicopter was flying in support of ground operations in the area.

One of those two Marines, 39-year-old Major Gerald Bloomfield II, was a native from the east side of Michigan.

CNN and Reuters have the story too, but without mentioning the Marines by name. The DoD press release is here.

Local news has more about him, his family, and how he felt about the whole affair over there:

He leaves behind a son, Ryan, 13; wife, Julie Bloomfield of White Pigeon; two sisters, Paula Wallace of Howell and Katy Kerch of Brighton; brother, Tom Bloomfield of Chelsea; mother Shirley Spears of Howell; and stepmother Judy Bloomfield of Ypsilanti. (Lansing State Journal)

He told his parents not to worry, because he believed in his comrades and in their training, his father said.

“He strongly believed in what he was doing,” Judy Bloomfield said. “He wasn’t afraid. He wanted to fight for his country.” (Ann Arbor News)

At Eastern Michigan University he earned double degrees in math and physics. Before graduating in ’89, he joined the Marines. Becoming and officer and eventually a pilot. Years later, married and with a son, he was a career military man who believed in the job he was doing in Iraq.

Paula: “By being there, he was protecting us and everything we have here.”

And he also believed in the freedom and the future of the country he was fighting in. He wrote about it in email sent home.

Kate: “It’s not a 3rd world country. I believe it has hope. He wanted them to experience some of the same freedoms we have here.”

And it’s his sisters wish that people who knew her brother in Fowlerville understand this, as well as the people of Iraq and in the country he was so proud to defend. Major Bloomfield will be laid to rest in Arlington National Cemetery. (WLNS)

Why highlight one fallen soldier out of over 2,000? Because, while I never met Jerry Bloomfield in life, we know some of the extended Bloomfield family through the local homeschooling community, and therefore mourn his loss with them.

God bless you, Major. And thank you.

I suppose these results aren’t terribly surprising … I’m so “new”, I’m not yet Catholic. And I do love Pope John Paul II of happy memory, and I do feel as if I’m rediscovering a lost faith.

The 2% “Liberal Catholic” result would explain my disconnect with the official ECUSA party line on … well, just about everything.

I was meditating a bit upon Lepanto, and fell into a moderate case of Catholic envy.

After all, the Catholic church has these wonderfully triumphalistic feasts such as Christ the King and Our Lady of Victory.

I’m pretty sure as Episcopalians, our corresponding feasts are of Jesus the Really Nice Rabbi and Our Lady of Perpetual Dialogue.

Now that I’m envious and depressed, I think I’ll go read The Ballad of the White Horse as an antidote (“hair of the dog”, perhaps?). At least we haven’t taken Alfred the Great off of the list of feasts yet.

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We’ll see if this is beneficial or baneful …

Dale mentioned the other day (I am unsure how much in jest) that it was “time to start collecting those distributist books.“

There’s one I’m sure he already has — the Bible. It was my attempt, some years ago, to read through all of the Bible that got me started down the path of distributist thinking.

This version of Psalm 37 is the translation from the 1979 Book of Common Prayer, and was this morning’s appointed reading. How could it not be dear to any agrarian/distributist’s heart?

37

Part I Noli aemulari

1. Do not fret yourself because of evildoers; *
   do not be jealous of those who do wrong.
2. For they shall soon wither like the grass, *
   and like the green grass fade away.
3. Put your trust in the LORD and do good; *
   dwell in the land and feed on its riches.
4. Take delight in the LORD, *
   and he shall give you your heart’s desire.
5. Commit your way to the LORD and put your trust in him, *
   and he will bring it to pass.
6. He will make your righteousness as clear as the light *
   and your just dealing as the noonday.
7. Be still before the LORD *
   and wait patiently for him.
8. Do not fret yourself over the one who prospers, *
   the one who succeeds in evil schemes.
9. Refrain from anger, leave rage alone; *
   do not fret yourself; it leads only to evil.
10. For evildoers shall be cut off, *
    but those who wait upon the LORD shall possess the land.
11. In a little while the wicked shall be no more; *
    you shall search out their place, but they will not be there.
12. But the lowly shall possess the land; *
    they will delight in abundance of peace.
13. The wicked plot against the righteous *
    and gnash at them with their teeth.
14. The Lord laughs at the wicked, *
    because he sees that their day will come.
15. The wicked draw their sword and bend their bow
    to strike down the poor and needy, *
    to slaughter those who are upright in their ways.
16. Their sword shall go through their own heart, *
    and their bow shall be broken.
17. The little that the righteous has *
    is better than great riches of the wicked.
18. For the power of the wicked shall be broken, *
    but the LORD upholds the righteous.

Seen in the October, 2005 Ann Arbor Observer calendar of events:

spiritsisters Women’s Circle.
All women invited to discuss spirituality, relationships, empowerment, metaphysics, and healing. Short meditation session. Bring divination tools, if you like. Temple Beth Emeth/St. Clare’s Episcopal Church, 2309 Packard. $3. 741-0478.

At least they’re not hosting a group whose practices are are really offensive to what the Episcopal Church stands for — you know, like those nasty knuckle-dragging Boy Scouts.

When men tell you to consult mediums and spiritists, who whisper and mutter, should not a people inquire of their God? Why consult the dead on behalf of the living?
— Isaiah 8:19 (NIV)

God have mercy.

So, the entire crew of us went to see yesterday’s Tigers game at Comerica Park. (I didn’t know that I’d miss Michigan and Trumble, the Only True Home™ of the Tigers, so much, but that’s another story …)

It was a beautiful day for a baseball game, sunny and hot, but with a breeze. Marring the perfection, however, was the blaring of the speakers directly above our heads as we sat 4 rows below maximum nosebleed.

I was coping, but Nancy was developing a horrific headache. It didn’t help that the Princess Rachel, in her cheering enthusiasm, had developed a rather piercing shriek to her constant “Go Tigers! Go Tigers!”

By the fifth inning, Nancy had to finally tell Rachel to please tone it down. “Save it for when someone hits a home run.”

Rachel, disappointed but obedient, puts on her sad face, quietly nods her assent …

CRACK!

… and Brandon Inge knocks it out of left field for a tie-breaking two-run homer.

“Yay Tigers! Yay Tigers!”

The sheer choreography of it was breathtaking, and a thing of beauty. 🙂

Time for some question-and-answer about the general state of the Episcopal Church:

Another stealth homeschooling endorsement:

The mindset that leads to consolidation in agriculture, so evident in the chicken business, has also taken place to an alarming degree in human culture, especially in consolidated schooling. Just as we herd more animals into confinement buildings, we herd more children into classrooms. Then we have little choice but to follow the rule of the chicken factory: one size fits all. And we justify both kinds of concentration camps with that all-American article of faith: it’s cheaper per unit; we can’t afford to do otherwise. Then we wonder why we must de-beak the chickens and frisk schoolchildren for firearms.

From All Flesh Is Grass, by Gene Logsdon (p. 137)

One of the more pernicious effects of the election and consecration of V. Gene Robinson as Bishop of New Hampshire (and of the sexual morality “debate” in ECUSA and the Anglican Communion) is the way that any serious discussion of the moral and theological disaster overtaking ECUSA can be dismissed as “homophobia”.

Especially if it gets to the level of “what should we then do?” and of taking action. No, “listening” and “dialogue” (as those words are currently used) are not actions, but ways of avoiding taking action. More precisely, they are ways of having “conservatives” avoid taking action while “liberals” merrily continue doing more and more of what they wish.