Twenty years ago, Halloween was on a Sunday, two days before a consequential presidential election.
The contested election four years earlier had come down to 500 votes in one state and was ultimately settled by a 5-4 Supreme Court decision.
The war in Iraq had raged for 18 months, the torture and abuse of Iraqi detainees by US Guards at Abu Ghraib prison had shocked the world in April, and the City had hosted the Republican National Convention in August— drawing hundreds of thousands of demonstrators.
A year earlier, 23-year-old American activist, Rachel Corrie, had been killed, many say intentionally, in Rafah by an Israeli armored bulldozer that was demolishing homes in the Gaza Strip.
Abortion rights were under attack, and the winner of the election would name two Supreme Court justices.*
Of course, for many, it was just Halloween in Greenwich Village. It was also the last big thing I would shoot on film.
*George W. Bush would defeat John Kerry and subsequently name John Roberts and Samuel Alito to the high court. Alito would write the majority opinion in the case that overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022, and Roberts would write a concurring opinion in that case. Both are still on the Court.