Communications

Satellite communications connect television screens in Japan with television cameras in England and the distance of half a world loses its meaning. The supersonic airplanes now under development will make it possible to fly from New York to many of your countries in the interval between breakfast and lunch. But the resulting need for increased international sensitivity is not a problem for Americans alone. The same planes will fly you to America with the same speed and we will call on you to understand us, also.

Just as distance comes to be measured in hours and even minutes, ideas must come to be measured by their merit, not their national origin. As the frame-work pulls together, so must its occupants. We become, whether we choose it or not, citizens of the world. What we can choose—and what you as men and women of learning and faith have a responsibility to choose—is to become world citizens who can make tolerant and educated Judgments concerning problems not only of our own lives and lands, but of men everywhere.

In my country, as in yours, I think there is substantial cause for optimism about how youth will fulfil this responsibility. In the United States young men and women are increasingly concerned with the society around them— both at home and abroad. Thousands work on behalf of civil rights or t he underprivileged. Large numbers are constructively involved in politics and public service. And you all know of the idealism and the dedication of the young Americans serving in the Peace Corps.

In mv travels, I have observed similar idealism and similar involvement by students elsewhere, whether in spirited activity for their own countries or in the work of the Peace Corps established by other countries.