Coming back from the 10/26 protest in Washington D.C. I found it difficult to begin to write about it. Writing and protesting have in common the fact that one has to do each as if it matters. It's a leap of faith that words put to paper will nudge a consciousness here or there or that raising your voice against the monolithic mobilizing military machinery will somehow put the brakes on it.

For the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times and for Bush and company, the protest didn't matter. For at least 150,000 people in Washington D.C that day, it did. If one letter to a congressperson is indicative of 100 people feeling the same way, what does one person getting on a bus in Wisconsin or Michigan or Minnesota to come to Washington in person mean? They all protested as if it mattered while who knows how many stayed home perhaps because they thought it wouldn't matter.

The decision by me to travel from Connecticut to Washington was challenged momentarily by the thought of a sniper roaming the DC area like a roulette ball. I figured it was a safe gamble and booked transportation and room. The relief after the sniper's capture was short-lived since my chosen mode of transportation was Amtrak. While Chechen rebels occupied a Moscow theatre, word went out that the U.S. rail system was a target for Al Qaeda according to information coaxed from prisoners at Guantanamo Bay. It was reported that Al Qaeda members "posing" as Westerners could bring explosives on board a train.

I decided to take the comforting position that the warning was just more of the same terror alerts meant to keep us all off balance and in our cars buying more gas. Not that I didn't check every countenance, hint of make-up and bit of luggage that passed by me on the train. And I did sit next to the emergency exit window.

In between the terrorist surveillance I read the paper and learned that the captured sniper was a Gulf War veteran and that the gun he used was something called a "Bushmaster." This, as much of the past two years, comes under the heading of - overwritten. When the motifs and literary devices are too thick with resonance an editor might say, "It's overwritten." "Bushmaster" is overwritten. And yet there it is. A Gulf War veteran - a weapon named Bush - anonymous targets - murder maybe motivated by money, maybe not - a combination of pathology and greed - and the streets feel more and more like enemy territory and the populous suffers under a low grade and palpable depression. That's the headline from Washington - even after the snipers are in custody.

Getting into the hotel room on 10/25 I turn the T.V. on, just to see if the world is still there. A picture of Paul Wellstone appears. Always great to see his face and hear what he has to say. I tell myself he's the best senator we've got - smart, eloquent, human - the most representing representative there is. And then his dates -1944-2002 - underlined his face - like closed quotes. Not possible. Too…too painfully overwritten.

In the old days we would have instantly thought he was assassinated. A Bush supporter called C-span to say he thought Wellstone's death was providence - the way James Baker in Florida was doing God's work. A flood of callers followed to condemn this man's remark. The next day, on the streets of Washington I overheard a few gathering protestors wondering aloud, "who paid to have Wellstone killed?" "Ground to cockpit remote devices - overtake the controls and ram the plane into the ground." It was just talk. They must think it's still the old days.

The chant that defined the protest for me was "No blood for oil." The Washington Police were great but then so were the protestors; an ardent, passionate and peaceful lot. The image that was most arresting was the sight of the empty White House surrounded by citizens. The "Surround the White House" protest was supposed to have taken place on September 29th 2001. But that day was pre-empted by 9/11. So here it was one year and one month later, the unoccupied people's house surrounded by the occupied people.

I saw a T-shirt on one of the counter protestors who were there to show their support for Bush and the war, which read, "Think Globally - Shoot locally." Since the man wearing the T-shirt was a fan of the Bushmaster his T-shirt was not actionable, just strangely insensitive given that he was in a city where there had just been a lot of local shooting.

In the days following the protest there was news of an Oklahoma teen who responded to criticism of his driving by going on a shooting spree, killing two. The next day another Gulf War veteran upset at his failing grades killed three and then himself. It was reported that violent crime is at its highest in ten years.

At the protest we heard from a Veteran For Peace and a Veteran For Common Sense, both saying that violence begets violence. One might say that even talk of violence begets violence. The Bushmaster, with his scope set, makes it clear to the world that there are debating societies and then there are real actors who know how and when to pull triggers and solve problems. A number of American citizens are ready to feel that way - they look for the sanction to act out - and master Bush unwittingly gives the unwitting time bombs the proper release. His rhetoric takes off the lock and then the trigger is up for grabs. Itchy psyches get permission to react the way master Bush says we are allowed - even obliged to react.

Ari Fleischer said it two days before the sniper spree started - a single bullet would be cheaper than a war. A single bullet is a prescribed way to solve problems according to the spokesperson for the administration. Trickling down from the head reptilian brain we get the noble vision for the world. Kill to find resolution. Kill to get peace. Kill to conquer evil. Kill one - kill many - either way they are sure something bloody has to happen. A poster from the 10/26 rally read- "Killing one person is murder - killing thousands is foreign policy."

One of the more sickening photo ops of the past two years was also one of the most recent: Bush signing some kind of voting reform act. Of course it was the machines that were to blame for the questionable election that cost us a legitimate government. Four billion dollars and a quick signature will solve that problem. The will of the people matters to Bush and company, which is why they work as hard as they do to twist that will to fit around their fist.

Punch card, touch screen, lever, butterfly - any and all can still be manipulated - legitimate voters can still be blocked, purged and disqualified - the reform to the technology is much less the point and trying to make it the point obscures the depressing criminality of the enduring catastrophic outcome of November 2000.

Now November 2002 - we protest, write and vote as if it matters. No other choice really. Do it as if it matters and if we do it enough and often and passionately, perhaps it will.

Bill C. Davis is a playwright. - http://www.billcdavis.com

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