Redeeming America

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'This Holocaust survivor gave his own life so that others might live,' Bush said. 'And this morning we honor his memory, and we take strength from his example.'

That Librescu, who had lived through such torment, would instinctively sacrifice his life in such a situation is testament not only to the man himself, but also to the preciousness of what he was protecting--the young lives of his students--and to the sacredness of universities, which represent at once our society's greatest achievements and the potential to right our greatest wrongs.

Just hours after Bush's speech, this spirit of potential was palpable at the student union at the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul, Minnesota, where half a dozen undergraduates were dining and chatting with their guest of honor, Taner Akcam, a visiting professor at the University of Minnesota and author of A Shameful Act: The Armenian Genocide and the Question of Turkish Responsibility (Metropolitan Books, 2006).

A slight and congenial man, Akcam is one of a handful of Turkish intellectuals who have risked persecution and prosecution to challenge their country to reckon with its bloody past. As the dinner conversation skipped from the roots of genocide to the perceptions of Americans in the world, it was clear that these students were wrestling with the national conscience they are poised to inherit.

It may take some reconfiguring of stereotypes, but forget, for a moment, the image of this generation as self-absorbed infants basking in their own MySpace reflections, and consider this: The seemingly quixotic task of rewiring our national character is, in fact, already under way.

Across the country, college campuses are brewing with creative campaigns to bypass Washington and reengage the world. At universities like St. Thomas, students are driving a targeted divestment campaign that's putting economic pressure on Sudan and its patron China. Elsewhere, groups like the national youth network Americans for Informed Democracy are holding videoconferences on U.S.-Islamic relations with their cohorts in Jordan and Indonesia.

According to the organization's 27-year-old president and cofounder, Seth Green, there's a clear sense among his generation that it's time for the country to craft a more cooperative and sensible approach to the world. That's not just a Model U.N. type talking. The numbers back him up. According to a study released by the Pew Research Center in January, 62 percent of 18- to 25-year-olds say the country needs to start listening to its allies and making compromises when necessary. (Only 52 percent of their elders agreed.)

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