ralph engelstad is dead. it's painful to me that such a wealthy person, who could have done so much good for the world, was also so profoundly horrible. i'm sure it's painful to all the countless people he manipulated, disrespected, shortchanged and screwed over, too. this was a man who gave to higher education in a way that had nothing to do with education, a man who cared very little for things outside his own interests, whether those interests were hockey or hitler. just remember, if you read the obit i've linked, that he was not a misunderstood servant of the little guy or a person who was interested in education in any genuine sense. but still: i don't wish death on anyone. i think there's hope for even the worst of us to find or create redemption, and i wish he had had the time to put his resources, personal and financial, to some positive use.

oh, and to merry, who commented upon my last engelstad post: bear in mind that an honor can only appropriately be called an honor when it is understood as such (or at the very least, as an honest attempt at such) by at least a majority of the people on whom it is conferred. not forced, conferred. i think that most of the Native people i have talked to are offended by the exoticized savagery contained in affixing "fighting" to a tribal name that was imposed by outsiders rather than created by the people so named.