"Loughner’s victims had asked that prosecutors not seek the death penalty… The judge sentenced him to a hundred and forty years in jail. But there are other numbers to take comfort in. When Loughner shot Giffords she was one of seventy-two women in Congress. In the next Congress, thanks to the election Tuesday, there will be eighty-one, and twenty women in the Senate—more than there have ever been. That number will certainly grow. Looking at the acceptance speeches and victories on Tuesday night, many girls were learning civics lessons."