My heart sank a little this morning when I read Erik Bauersfeld — Admiral Ackbar — died Sunday at age 93.
I confess I’ve never seen any of the Star Wars movies (yeah, OK, I know), but for me, Ackbar forever will be linked to a time when my alma mater seemed perpetually trapped in conflict over its own racially divisive traditions with no clear sign it ever would move beyond the mistakes of its past.
Back in 2010, when Ole Miss students had the opportunity to decide whether they wanted to develop a new mascot, I was trying to survive my last semester as editor of the campus newspaper and recipient of near-constant hate mail for everything the paper did or didn’t do.