Pubdate: Sun, 13 Oct 2002 Source: Rochester Democrat and Chronicle (NY) Website: http://www.democratandchronicle.com/ Address: 55 Exchange Blvd. Rochester, NY 14614 Contact: 2002 Rochester Democrat and Chronicle Fax: (716) 258-2356 Author: Donna Jackel UR HEARS BENNETT, RUSHDIE A noted conservative and a novelist who was driven into hiding for the words he penned spoke Saturday as part of the University of Rochester's Meliora Weekend. Both men -- William J. Bennett and Salman Rushdie -- were among high-profile speakers for the event, a mix of reunions, family events and lectures. The weekend, which grew out of a similar celebration in 2000 for UR's 150th anniversary, also hosted U.S. Sen. Hillary Clinton on Friday and will feature CNN founder Ted Turner at noon today. Bennett, who was scheduled to talk about leadership and values, also touched on choice in education, Iraq, the drug war, welfare reform and America after the 2001 terrorist attacks. He told of the nationwide search by the Reagan administration for a Republican to chair the National Endowment for the Humanities. Only three humanities professors could be found who voted for Reagan, Bennett said, adding that he was the second choice. He spoke of the leaders he met in his travels around the country, first as secretary of education under Reagan and later as director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy under the first President Bush. In his travels as drug czar, Bennett met a Charleston, S.C., police chief - -- Rubin Greenberg -- who reduced drug crime by evicting public housing tenants who fed or sheltered drug dealers. "That's what a great leader can do," he said. "Change the whole psychology of what's going on." Rushdie spoke to a capacity crowd. He was already an internationally known writer when his 1988 novel, Satanic Verses, was banned in India and South Africa because it was condemned by the Ayatollah Khomeini for its religious references. Khomeini issued a fatwa calling for all Muslims to execute Rushdie. Rushdie was in hiding for most of the 1990s. Yet freedom of expression won, Rushdie said. "The book is still available, the writer hasn't been silenced and between the Ayatollah and I, one of us is dead," he said. Rushdie, who now lives in New York City, read several pieces on topics such as the 2000 presidential election and his hippie days in London. One essay, titled "Darwin in Kansas," was about efforts in Kansas to have Charles Darwin's theory of evolution removed from textbooks, an action Rushdie called "living proof that Darwin's theory of natural selection (survival of the fittest) doesn't work." - --- MAP posted-by: Beth