It’s a bitter irony that Salman Rushdie was about to debate the necessity to defend persecuted writers when he was brutally assaulted in Western New York Friday. The symbolic nature of the tragic occasion comes into even sharper reduction due to the assault’s actual location: the Chautauqua Establishment.
Based in 1874 as an academic experiment, Chautauqua is a nonprofit group and a summer season resort. It has a wealthy and distinctive historical past of internet hosting open dialogue in addition to championing range of thought, non secular pluralism and free expression. Chautauqua has hosted numerous audio system, from artists to scientists, coverage makers to authors. Theodore Roosevelt, who visited in 1905, referred to as it “probably the most American factor in America.” His distant cousin Franklin D. Roosevelt made it the stage for his 1936 “I hate warfare” speech, and plenty of others adopted.
