We Are All Living History

So, yesterday, I was teaching boichik his tunnel stops (Westlake is the monorail, University is Hammering Man...). 
 An Asian American student who was pure effervescence overheard us and launched our section into a rollicking conversation about the public transit experiences no one talks about. (Like when the person sitting next to you has fallen asleep, and you don't know if letting them stay asleep it is the best thing you could possibly do, or if they are going to be totally screwed by missing their stop if you don't do something…)
Then I said to boichik, "And International District means-"
And he said, "Mochi! Mochi!"
And I said, "Daifuku mochi!"
And he said, "Daifuku mochi!"
And our bubbling student *squealed*, "Daifuku mochi! You have made me homesick! I grew up with my grandmother making daifuku mochi for me!"
And as we pulled into the station, she added, "They lived right here-- before the internment camp."

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Being a citizen is like... it is like being born into a collective body. And to live well in that body, you need to know its triumphs and its injuries, what it has overcome and what it is struggling with.

You have to know what you are a part of now, and what is a part of you-- the monorail, Hammering Man, daifuku mochi, the internment camps.

It's not trivia. It's a difference in consciousness. And differences in consciousness are what make differences in conscience.