As yet another senseless and tragic terror attack—the ninth such incident involving a vehicle in the past 18 months around the world—played out Tuesday about a half mile away from the World Trade Center in New York City, I couldn’t help but think about what has become obvious over the past few years: How in the world can we stop these lone wolf attacks from occurring?

Eight people were killed during the Halloween attack when a 29-year-old Middle Eastern man drove a rented Home Depot pickup truck into a crowd of people on a bike path. The incident, which was the deadliest in the city since September 11, 2001, mimics other fatal terror attacks seen across Europe over the past few years and leaves similar feelings of hopelessness and despair as to what world leaders can do to prevent these acts of violence.

This is not an article presenting some “foolproof” plan to try and prevent these events. Nothing of the sort, unfortunately, seems to exist. In fact, I don’t believe that they can be prevented, and that’s the most frightening aspect of these attacks.

Instead, I’m using this platform to let some of my frustrations out and, as most people in the greater New York City area, am taking a step back to face this harsh reality.

The United States has the strongest military on Earth and the best law enforcement officials to boot. Despite how brilliant these units are at maintaining the safety of their fellow citizens, there’s no way that they can prevent these lunatics from taking the lives of innocent people.

You can’t thwart something you have no intelligence on and no actual way of knowing when it will happen. Our country doesn’t have the resources to keep track of all potential terrorists, let alone those that it isn’t aware of.

With there being no clear-cut method to foiling this kind of attack, the best thing we as a people can do is keep living our lives, just as those in New York City did Tuesday night.

Mayor Bill de Blasio didn’t cancel the city’s annual Halloween parade, sending a stern message that resonated deeper than any words could.

The city of New York, and the nation behind it, will not be intimidated by cowardly acts of violence.

Life will go on as usual, and that’s for the best. The second we as a nation show anything but resolve is when we’re in trouble. With countless of these attacks as a reference and no apparent way to stop them, that’s about the only thing we can do.