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It’s a bitter irony that Salman Rushdie was about to discuss the need to protect persecuted writers when he was brutally assaulted in Western New York Friday. The symbolic nature of the tragic event comes into even sharper relief because of the assault’s exact location: the Chautauqua Institution.
Founded in 1874 as an educational experiment, Chautauqua is a nonprofit organization and a summer resort. It has a rich and unique history of hosting open discussion as well as championing diversity of thought, religious pluralism and free expression. Chautauqua has hosted countless speakers, from artists to scientists, policy makers to authors. Theodore Roosevelt, who visited in 1905, called it “the most American thing in America.” His distant cousin Franklin D. Roosevelt made it the stage for his 1936 “I hate war” speech, and many others followed.
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