This image (meme credit to Andrew Brawley) has been circulating since the Portland-Seattle derby match Saturday. For those unfamiliar, it’s a few fools from the Emerald City Supporters burning a Timbers Army No Pity scarf pre-match.

The scarf sells at the merch van for $10, though the one in the photo is a USL-era scarf that the burners either stole from someone, saved and cared for for years or paid a ridiculous amount of money for on eBay.

Regardless of where the scarf came from, it’s a despicable display. I say this knowing that there are folks in the TA that, should they find themselves in possession of an ECS scarf would set that sucker on fire immediately.

Not my style. I don’t think I should have to pull these kinds of stunts to prove how hard I am, how ultra I am. I’m not ultra. Neither are the bandana-covered fools in the picture. Not ultra, just stupid.

I’d like to believe we support differently in Portland. We choose to build up our team, our town and each other rather than focus on bringing the other team down. Where Seattle and San Jose tifo has taken shots at us, we honor our club, our city and the legends who brought us all together. While our northern counterparts are pre-gaming by burning things in the streets, we’re planting trees and volunteering at the Oregon Food Bank and shelving books in elementary schools and holding blood drives.

(But then we take to Twitter to call each other n00bs for using cell phones at Jeld-Wen. Whatever. When you get a handle on the drunken fools starting fights in the 100s, you can come yell at me and my rogue cell phone usage in the 200s.)

Wait. What was I talking about again?

Oh, right. Support in Portland is different than support in Seattle. This will always be the case. This will always be an argument between supporters groups. And we will always be on the right side of history. If Jeld-Wen Field is our cathedral, our trinity is this: Team, Town, TA.

A tweet went out today with a link to a post on the 107ist message boards. A member of our board of directors (rather, a former member now) has been diagnosed with cancer. She’s stepped back from her board duties in order to (for perhaps the first time ever) put her health and well-being first.

As is our custom, when word got out about Joanne’s diagnosis, people immediately wanted to create a scarf to raise money for her. She refused. I’m sure she said something like,”Oh, don’t be silly” and when she said it, whoever was there to hear it thought it was adorable because, well, accents are adorable.

So, instead of a scarf, Kyle (who leads us in ’80s television theme song-based chants at reserves matches) has suggested we donate to the Gisele Currier Memorial Fund. You can read about Gisele and the scholarship fund that honors her here. If you do donate, and I hope you will, please note “For Joanne” in the comment section of your donation.

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While I was writing this, word broke on Twitter that the Southsiders, the Vancouver Whitecaps supporters group, has lost one of their own. Leighanne loved her Whitecaps and her Canucks and was a breast cancer survivor. You can read the Southsiders news flash here and you can donate to the BC Breast Cancer Foundation in her honor here.

We offer prayers of comfort and healing to Leighanne’s husband Mark and to their Southsider brethren.

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Apologies for this being a mess of a post. The next one will be better, I swear.