i remember living in redhatistan in 2003. it was halloween. i thought of the thing that would be scariest to my neighbors so i dressed up as an iraq war protestor. most of my neighbors immediately got it and thought it was hilarious. about 15% of them were insanely offended and two or three grown men squared up to fight me until they realized the puny disabled kid had this long board with nails in it holding a small sign. i was not unprepared in any way.

I got garbage thrown at me in school and I was the one called to the the office over it. I didn't even have a complex opinion on the war. I was just creeped out by jingoism and I wanted to distance myself from it.

I remember in those days I was watching CNN and there was a split screen, one side was a photo of Bush, the other side was a photo of Saddam. I remember thinking "I honestly don't know who scares me more." I had absolutely no idea how bad things could get. I wish we were back to the relative sanity of those days.

Not to be too nitpicky, but the Iraq war started in 2003. 2001 was about California wildfires, the fallout from the dotcom bubble, then 9/11 and Enron.