Salman Rushdie Attacked

Salman Rushdie

The way this had had been going I cold certainly imagine that it could take a turn for the worse.  Then this news.  Salman Rushdie was making an appearance in New York today to give a talk on the United States as  a safe haven for exiled writers. The irony is that in 1989 Rushdie was living under a death threat issued by the government of Iran. Suzanne Nossel, an officer of Pen America, that is dedicated to promoting the expression, said "we can think of no comparable incident of a public attack on a literary writer on American Soil." 

At this writing he is on a ventilator and cannot presently talk. He was stabbed in the neck and about the abdomen.  It is said he will likely lose one eye, nerves in one arm were severed, and his lived was damaged by the stabbing.  

​The attacker is in custody. No word yet on motive. Rushdie spend several years hiding in seclusion in London, but decided he could no longer live a life hiding and on the run. 

I am sickened by this event and the many instances of writers being silenced, imprisoned or killed due to their work.

Pen America is an organization that has been fighting to empower writers, many who are within boarders where they are not truly safe. There are more and more instances of them being jailed, sentenced to death, or having to live in exile. 


​Mood today:    #sad not the best of days. 

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