This was originally posted on blogger.

Day 2 in the US. I wake up at Leon’s house. It’s Thursday morning, and there’s a knock on the door. I look around, but Leon is in a meeting, his mother is out, and his father appears to be changing. So I take a stab and peak outside.

An Asian-American woman named Christina is standing outside, “Hi – I’m not here at all for any political purposes but…” I wonder if she’s here for religious purposes. “I parked my car out here on this street and it got broken into. It was a hummer – I know, a gas guzzler, but I promise it’s actually my dad’s car and my car was at the repairs and so I was just using it temporarily because I would intentionally drive a hummer, but I was just wondering if you had video footage. It was just parked right outside there.”

Christina looked visibly shook and I offered my sympathies. I also thought it quite hilarious that she felt like she needed to justify using a hummer. I really wouldn’t care all that much. She gave me her contact and I said I would pass it on.

“Do you know why Pakistanis love to celebrate Thanksgiving?” My buddy Commentary, a hobo/peace advocate on Berkeley campus, asks. I scratch my head. “Think about it. What is Thanksgiving – what do *I* think of Thanksgiving?” he prompts. “Thanksgiving is… genocide?” I offer. You can thank my Berkeley education for that one. “Yes, and genocide of who?” “The Indians! That’s why Pakistanis love to celebrate Thanksigiving!” I chortle.

Next to Commentary is Chris, Berkeley’s lone conservative voice. He told me about how he doesn’t like Trump, but he’s a necessary evil, and actually Chris himself is a Reagan conservative, and conservatism hasn’t changed that much since the 80s, because the conservatives are all about keeping things the same – that’s what conservative means. Commentary and Chris duke it out on campus all day, each saying radical-sounding things to students on campus. The Sproul Plaza in a way invites this, though I know most people walk straight through with AirPods on. Me talking to both Chris and Commentary was doing everyone else a service.

I don’t know if I understood how absurdly liberal Berkeley is until this day. When I see Berkeley, San Francisco and Oakland after coming back from Taiwan, I see a bunch of people who are scared to offend, scared to make jokes, scared to talk about what they really feel for fear of judgement. There are a few exceptions, like Commentary. But I think people my age are burdened by a perfectionism when it comes to speech and ideas. A perfectionism that hinders curiosity and self-realization.