Posts Tagged ‘Facebook’

Boise State fans show what sportsmanship means, love Kyle Brotzman, who cost the Broncos a chance to play for the national championship

November 29, 2010

Real fans take football seriously. Some fans used to wait outside their team’s dressing room and beat up their field goal kicker after he missed an important kick. Fans of the coulda-woulda-shoulda Boise State Broncos are different. They know that football is a game and college players are college kids.


Saturday Boise was nine yards away from its first major bowl game—a certain Rose Bowl bid, and possibly a chance to play instead for the national championship. It was Boise 31-Nevada 31 with one second left, and reliable kicker Kyle Brotzman trotted on to kick a game winner. An easy “chip shot” like a thousand he had made. But he missed. Overtime.


The Broncos’ first possession fizzled at the Nevada 12 yard line. Another chip shot. Kyle missed again. Nevada promptly moved into position and their kicker kicked the winning field goal. Boise’s dreams were dead.

But Bronco fans didn’t beat up Brotzman: they came together with a display of love for their hero-turned-goat. As of this minute, less than 36 hours after the fiasco, a Facebook page called The Bronco Nation Loves Kyle Brotzman has over 18,000 fans.


Boise fans have earned a mythical Marv Levy award, named for the Hall of Famer and former coach of the Buffalo Bills (more…)

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Posted in Ethics-general, Sports | 1 Comment »

Anti-Muslim rants on Facebook: “1,000,000+ people who disapprove of building a mosque at Ground Zero!”

May 30, 2010

There’s a Facebook group called “1,000,000+ people who disapprove of building a mosque at Ground Zero!” It has 109,000 members so far, and the postings are mostly rabid anti-Muslim rants and slurs. Most of the members—even those not apparently driven by hate of Muslims—refer to all Muslims as “they”—as in they are terrorists, or they attacked us on 9/11.

There’s some background on the mosque here. Just last week a Manhattan community board struck a blow for New York-style tolerance and diversity by voting 29-1 with ten abstentions to approve the mosque. There are more hurdles ahead, but the community sentiment is in a good place.

I’ve joined the group to join the conversation. Wouldn’t it be nice if 109,000 more people joined who believed in religious freedom, and in NOT attributing to an entire people the acts of the worst of them. Go ahead and join up. You could join the conversation and perhaps inject a note of love-your-neighbor to the group. Who knows, it might be catching.

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Posted in Ethics-general, International, Politics, Tolerance | Leave a Comment »

Furor erupts over American Jews’ plan to build a synagogue near Ground Zero

May 12, 2010

Some Americans are up in arms over the prospect of a big new synagogue in the old Burlington Coat Factory site near Ground Zero, the site of the World Trade Center towers destroyed on 9/11. There’s even a Facebook page called “1,000,000+ people who disapprove of building a synagogue at Ground Zero!” It has 20,389 members, up from about 7,000 two days ago. The word is spreading virally on the internet, and people are thronging to the site to sign up.

The site’s self-description reads,

Jews want to put a SYNAGOGUE WITHIN 600 FEET “GROUND ZERO”! This page’s opinion is this synagogue is a symbol of conquering America; they could have put it somewhere else away from Ground Zero – hallowed ground – but they chose this spot for a reason.


Join us, and show America – and the Jewish world – that is an insult, and cannot stand!


This groups is NOT about attacking Judaism or Jews; it’s about the appropriateness of putting such a building in that location. Also, Obama has nothing to do with it; if you want to blame someone, blame Mayor Bloomberg – he approved of it.

The man leading the effort to build the synagogue is Rabbi Frank Rubenstein, who explained to The New York Times, “We want the world to know we condemn 9/11. In my congregation are many people who died on 9/11.” The Times described the rabbi as following a path of Judaism focused more on spiritual wisdom (more…)

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Posted in Ethics-general, International, Politics, Tolerance | 6 Comments »