On October 31, 2017, Halloween, at about 3:15 p.m., I left our Maiden Lane office to walk to the World Financial Center where I was scheduled to meet with a client. About ten minutes into my walk, my paralegal Suzi called me, “Dennis, be careful, I saw on the news scroll something about a “mass shooting near Chambers Street.”  “Thanks, I’m fine,” and I kept walking west.  When I reached West Street (the Westside Highway to New Yorkers), I saw a white delivery van splayed across the Southbound lane with its front end crushed to the windshield.  Helicopters, sirens, EMTs, all traffic in every direction, stopped.

I crossed the highway and continued to my appointment perhaps 400 yards from where, I later learned, a terrorist had ended his murderous rampage down the Westside Esplanade, a delightful path along the Hudson for all to enjoy. But those 400 yards seemed a world away from the carnage I would later see on the evening news.

I think New Yorkers have found the best way to fight terror. It is RESILIENCE; a will to keep going in the face of adversity.  Although by 5:00 p.m. most of New York knew what had happened, life went on, undaunted.  In my neighborhood, literally blocks from where the attack took place, parents took their costumed children trick-or-treating; the fabled Halloween parade took place as scheduled; and all seemed strangely normal.

In the ancient world, the proudest boast was “civis Romanus sum” (I am a Citizen of Rome). In essence, the phrase was a declaration that the individual was entitled to the full protection of the Empire if their liberty was challenged. After the events of this Halloween, I proudly boast “I am a Citizen of New York.”

And that’s it for this This and That.