Ground Zero 'just a background for a photo-op'

"Five years later this space is still empty.

"Five years later there is no memorial to the dead.

"Five years later there is no building rising to show with proud defiance that we would not have our America wrung from us, by cowards and criminals.

"Five years later this country's wound is still open.

"Five years later this country's mass grave is still unmarked.

"Five years later this is still just a background for a photo-op.

"It is beyond shameful.

"At the dedication of the Gettysburg Memorial -- barely four months after the last soldier staggered from another Pennsylvania field -- Mr. Lincoln said, 'we cannot dedicate, we cannot consecrate, we cannot hallow this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract.'

"Lincoln used those words to immortalize their sacrifice.

"Today our leaders could use those same words to rationalize their reprehensible inaction. 'We cannot dedicate, we can not consecrate, we can not hallow this ground.' So we won't."

Read the full text of this lament by American newsman Keith Olbermann.

Tagged: usa, 9/11, bush