The "uh-0's"

As we close in on the end of a decade, we search for the catchphrase that will capture the essence of the first ten years of the new millenium. I think I have it : " The 0 no's".

From the fall of the Twin Towers to the fall of the stock market, from the ongoing disasters in Iraq to Afghanistan, from the voices of those Republicans in opposition to this administration, one phrase has been constant, "oh no".

On that day in 2001, when the towers disappeared, what was once there for all of us, not only physically but psychologically, was turned to nothing.

When the greed overcame us, and in 2008 our economic complacency was suddenly gone, we had less than when we started the decade and less certainty in our own futures. Much ventured but nothing gained, and we had lost our economic underpinning.

Under the command of a President who did not back off from a fight, no matter how stupid or ill conceived, we found ourselves wandering through the Middle East, invading a country that we later discovered had not in fact taken part in the attack on our nation, and did not possess the weapons to hurt us. After years of disastrous decisions, we now remove ourselves from one battlefield and head towards another. Most of us see that nothing good emerged and fear a never -ending dance with no positive ending.

From January 20, 2009 to the last tick of the clock in this decade, if there is one thing we can be certain of, it is the Republican opposition to anything and everything suggested by this present administration. Vote after vote, and discussion after discussion, is marked by a single Republican theme: Nothing, but nothing, will get done on your watch. No matter the issue, no matter the need, "no" was all that mattered to them.

We watch in horror, in disgust and in bewilderment. The "O's" have been marked by one event after another that have made us less comfortable, less affluent, less meaningful in the eyes of those who judge us, and less willing to do what we must to make it better.

We are ending a decade where we have not stepped up, but have seemed to step backwards. The "zeroes" have not been good to us. In its grasp, and when we look back, we will find this to be a time where "oh, no" dominated. It has been 10 years of zero in so many more ways than just the calendar.