Today, we continue our series, “A VG Writer’s Roundtable 25 years after 9/11: 4 Questions, 4 Days”, with Day 2, Question 2.

The premise of our series is simple: a conversation built around 4 questions over 4 days, between women who lived through 9/11, and who write every week for Victory Girls Blog. You can find Day 1, Question 1, here.

This series is our record of how a small group of conservative women, forever changed by September 11^th, still see that day and what we believe it continues to require of us.

We believe those of us who lived through it have a duty to remember accurately, to teach deliberately, and to refuse the “comfortable forgetting” parts, that always threatens to settle in.

Do we have all the answers? Of course not.

But we have a lot.

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Question 2, Day 2

The Introduction.

History does not repeat itself in tidy, little cycles; it waits for people to grow soft, distracted, or for some, ashamed of their own strength. For me, 25 years after the most devastating attack on American soil since the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor, the lesson that presses hardest is the one we are most tempted to ignore: resolve is not simply “a mood”. It IS a discipline. It requires naming enemies without blinking or adverting our eyes, securing our borders without apology, and refusing the slow corrosion of moral equivalence that treats “the butchers” and “the builders” as equally valid worldviews. They are not. In 2026 the threats have evolved, but our character test remains the same. Has America remained clear eyed and kept the hard clarity taught to all of us that morning? Or have we allowed it to dissolve into a pathetically managed appeasement, with carefully worded excuses? I think we all know the answer to that.

Below, the VG writers confront Question #2 without that soften sentimentality that the passing of time sometimes adds. – Kate

The Question.

Looking back over twenty-five years, what lesson from that day feels most urgent in 2026?

Our Responses.

Carol – The most urgent lesson twenty-five years later is that tolerance cannot become naïveté.

America is an extraordinarily welcoming country, but somewhere along the way we became almost embarrassed to expect the people who come here to become part of it. Assimilation became a dirty word. We started treating the expectation that newcomers respect our laws, our culture and our way of life as somehow intolerant.

September 11 should have taught us better.

There are people and ideologies in this world that are fundamentally hostile to America and Western values. Pretending otherwise doesn’t make us compassionate. It makes us complacent.

Religious liberty is one of the great American principles, and it should remain so. But religious liberty does not require America to surrender its own identity, change its values to accommodate someone else’s, or pretend that every belief brought here is compatible with those values.

You are free to worship here. You are free to disagree with us. But America should never be expected to apologize for being America in order to make anyone feel more comfortable living in it.

Darleen – In 2001, there were many things that we took for granted … the basic is that our way of life in a high trust society was the default of the way things work. Look at movies pre-2001 and how we treated air travel. Show up at the airport, walk on a plane, family and friends at the gate to wave goodbye or greet you on arrival.

Trust once lost may never come back again. However, the lesson should be that we need to insist on holding people who do bad things strictly and personally responsible. Consequences need to be swift and appropriate so the law-abiding stop feeling there is a two-tier system where they are second.

Deanna – That you cannot negotiate with someone who wants to kill you. When someone says “I hate America,” or “death to America,” or “America deserved 9/11” – believe them.

Jodi – The morning after the attacks—September 12^th, 2001—the air was filled with palpable grief. And fear. And uncertainty. In its wake, I made my way over to the local drug store in hopes of finding a tiny American flag lapel pin like those I’d begun seeing other people wearing. The little flags were spreading throughout the community like proverbial wildfire.

I walked in, and as I zombie-shuffled my way through the aisles, people looked at me. I looked at them. No words. Just silent acknowledgment that we were all in unfathomable pain, but also that we were united in our patriotism and in our resolve.

And that’s the lesson I pray America can somehow return to: unity. Not in thought. Not in political leanings. Not in who we love. But a quiet understanding, and a mutual respect, for our love of country and one another as Americans.

Lisa –  The attacks come when we are least expecting them. That vigilance is important. Over 25 years, it seems as if Americans have forgotten who did this to us and WHY they did this to us.

Our attackers, who vehemently hated us and our society, learned to fly aircraft on OUR soil. We welcomed them in with open arms. The used our resources-our flight schools, our educational systems and our jets to attack us.

We were not vigilant. We were lulled into a false sense of security. We thought it could never happen to us.

It did.

Nina – Terrorists attacked us. Those who funded them are STILL out there. Thomas Jefferson was correct. The Muslims declared intifada against America while we were mere Colonies and took Americans hostage in Tripoli. Jefferson didn’t appease them. He took the battle to them. And they will continue unless we stop them cold. From 9/11 on, we should ALWAYS stand for the American principles of FREEDOM, not appeasement to those who might have hurt feelings.

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How would you answer Question 2? Let us know in the comments below.

Tomorrow’s Writer’s Roundtable question is:

Where has America’s resolve held firm, and where has it softened or been deliberately weakened?

Please join us then, for Day 3, Question 3.

Featured Photo Credit: photo used is original artwork by Victory Girls writer and graphics artist, Darleen Click.