Signs of relief are spreading from -- well all over. No, this is not the end of Trump. It is not Armageddon avoided. But it is close to Waterloo. I refer to the victory just confirmed of one Doug Jones in the state of Alabama. It is becoming instant mythology.

To show the feeling one might deduce in the wake of this closest of wins, there is nothing more pertinent than the image of a little cat who gives every sign of having been narrowly rescued.

And by a woman, of course.

When something is mythological you lump things together because they seem to fit.

This was a roundhouse victory complete with a predictable protest from the defeated candidate. I have not opened Mr. Trump's Twitter page but I have little doubt he will claim he was robbed. And here I shall claim that it was a victory for women, women who resonate with the image of a rescued cat, women who are able to say, "We did it."

NYT

Another winner was the New York Times. While Nate Silver was having a multi-thousand-word conniption over at 538 the Times defied the count and called the race on a dime. I will never diss the Gray Lady again. To honor that I am embedding the Times account of the Jones win. Go there and read up. Things will not be the same after now.

I was in Birmingham a week after the three girls were killed, continuing my civil rights reporting.

I met Dr. King behind the bombed-out Gaston Motel and we talked, along with some Canadian journalists. I was later at Selma the week James Reeb was shot dead.

Alabama is split as close as last night's election. But it is tipping the right way. It'll make one of my favorite Alabaman's. Emmylou Harris, happy.

Confluence

You want to talk confluence?

Today impacts Al Franken big time. Whatever Al Franken may have done no one dares accuse him of indecency.

And now an undercurrent which has been growing will turn into a possible act of forgiveness and mercy. It may make Franken governor of Minnesota. There is every possibility that the cagey Roger Stone, the well-dressed dirty trickster, was the author of Franken's downfall, parlaying some true stories into an equivalency story.

It didn't work.

This morning we get to say there was no equivalence. We find a confluence of events that all say, "Whew!" And "What do we do now?"

No quick fixes

I think we do nothing for a few minutes at least. We look with some care at the story I have embedded and its companion stories. And we realize that this is the same story I covered back in the 1960s.

We creep slowly toward progress.

We are guaranteed that by everything from our own capacity for abduction to the blood of Christ. We will take a deep breath and keep working.
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