"True is it that we have seen better days." — William Shakespeare

Pearl Harbor brought out the best in the American people. We responded by pulling together for a major mobilization when an act of war landed on our soil in 1941. That December day, which Franklin Roosevelt eloquently declared would "live in infamy," is within living memory.

Twenty-five years ago, following the September 11th terrorist attacks, the opposite happened. The George W. Bush White House sowed a society of suspicious, separate and scared strangers.

When the World Trade Center towers fell in crumbling clouds of dust, that was a shocking experience that a great — or even good — leader could turn into a stronger sense of community, cohesion and connection.

Instead, what happened in mourning the loss of nearly 3,000 lives on a beautiful blue morning? Vice President Dick Cheney seized the reins of power from one spooked president, who fled over the country, then hid out in a nuclear underground shelter. What a weak response in a crisis. How far had we fallen?

Sept. 11th set the scene for a cursed 21st century so far. President Donald J. Trump is the dark side of our national character.

The Bush-Cheney White House created the behemoth Department of Homeland Security. The Germanic term "homeland" entered our vocabulary. As we see clearly now, DHS's creation was a terrible idea and a danger to keeping the peace at home.

DHS's Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents are a secret police, rounding up and deporting immigrants, most of whom have no criminal records, by the thousands. Using force and fatal violence, they spread fear by abusive tactics, rough language and use of masks. In general, law enforcement is more militarized.

The Bush-Cheney duo marred public places, building barriers and bollards that create a buzzkill wherever they are. Around the U.S. Capitol, the lovely landscape is ruined with fences, checkpoints and police presence. (Ironically, it was a mob of Americans who attacked it 20 years later.) For a bunker-like new Visitor Center, an untold number of original trees were torn down.

This is the house of American democracy. The gracious back terrace stairs (designed by Frederick Law Olmsted) are not open to the public anymore. "Come in!" has changed to "Keep out!"

Of course, none of that would have blocked a hijacked plane from hitting the Capitol. That was the intended target of the fourth plane, which passengers and crew drove down to the ground and smashed to smithereens. The Pennsylvania farm field site reminds one of the courage of Gettysburg, somehow.

Civilians were the heroes of the day, helping one another down dark flights of stairs and out of burning wreckages at the Twin Towers and the Pentagon. If you consider the United 93 souls never met one another when they boarded, and had no training, weapons or uniforms, how they banded together to save the Capitol is remarkable, the best of America.

But then Bush and Cheney approved CIA torture of al-Qaeda suspects and surveillance of American citizens. They used Sept. 11th as a pretext to rush into a war on Iraq, which had nothing to do with the Sept. 11th attacks, with help from the sly Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld. Secretary of State Colin Powell made a false case to the United Nations.

After the peace and prosperity of the Clinton '90s, we the people had no idea how fast the political weather could change — in a shattering instant. So we meekly accepted the 5-4 Supreme Court ruling that handed the presidency to Bush. He took office in January 2001, though Al Gore won the popular vote.

Eight months later, calamity struck out of clear blue skies. The Bush-Cheney White House was unprepared and should have shouldered blame. Bill Clinton personally told Bush during the handover that al-Qaeda was his major national security threat. Bush ignored him and did not take a briefing on the plane plot until August.

I like to think the seasoned Gore would have thwarted a very simple plan that slipped through the cracks of the FBI and CIA on Bush's watch. Imagine how different the 21st century would be with President Gore at the start, especially as an environmental expert.

Nineteen angry men brought a superpower to its knees — in more ways than one.

The author may be reached at JamieStiehm.com. To find out more about Jamie Stiehm and other Creators Syndicate columnists and cartoonists, please visit creators.com.

Photo credit: Julien Maculan at Unsplash