John Robson: In Our Hearts We’re All Heroes, but in the Real World Speaking Up Takes Courage

Hadi Matar is escorted from the stage after allegedly stabbing author Salman Rushdie as people tend to Rushdie at the Chautauqua Institution, in Chautauqua, New York, on Aug. 12, 2022. AP Photo

Commentary

Would you appear on a platform next to Salman Rushdie? Inside our heads, I suppose, we’re all heroes. We’d have been anti-Nazi in the 1930s, anti-Communist in the 1970s, anti-slavery in the 1850s, anti-Nero in ancient Rome, anti-Nazgul in Middle Earth, and so forth. But in the real world it takes commitment and courage that isn’t always ready to hand.