An Evening in Philly with Obama

As I stood on the Mall on April 18, 2008, I considered the contradictory circumstances that seemed to merge at that place as I listened to Senator Barack Obama as he addressed the enthusiastic crowd that had waited for more than three hours for his arrival. By the way, unlike conditions at previously reported on Obama events, security that night was tight.

 Washington Square, now named for the United States of America's first president, was formerly known as Congo Square, an area spanning east and west, between 6th and 7th Streets and Walnut and Locust Streets, north and south, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. 

Congo Square is said to be one of William Penn's original five city squares. Penn is credited with claiming land that established the founding of the state of Pennsylvania, translated to mean ' Penn's woods', in 1681.

 Congo Square is located approximately five blocks from the rally site where the senator spoke, on Friday evening, to the largest crowd assembled to date during his campaign to seek the Democratic Party's nomination for president of the United States. The crowd was estimated at over 35,000, on Independence Mall, at 5th and Market Streets.

 During Colonial times, Congo Square was the place men, women and children of African descent were auctioned and sold to the highest bidder, later to be transported to new destinations after sales were complete.
 
Independence Mall, the location of the rally, is where Independence Hall stands, the hall where landholders and property owning male descendants of Britain met, almost two hundred thirty two years ago, to hammer out their differences, signing a document, declaring their right to ".... life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness....", giving birth to a nation, a nation, surprisingly acknowledged by U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, with a " birth defect", referring to slavery.
 
That night, Senator Obama stated:
 
The union they created has endured for two centuries not because we’re perfect, but because we’ve always been perfectible – because each generation of Americans has been willing to stand up and sacrifice and do what’s necessary to inch us closer to the ideals at the core of our founding promise – equality, and liberty, and opportunity for all who seek it. 

During colonial times, Congo Square was also known as a place where freedmen of African descent and the enslaved congregated to drum and make music, sharing food and stories of a life left behind virtually in another world.

 The significance of the site of the rally and its proximity to Congo Square seemed a noteworthy juxtaposition and fitting place for a gathering of all types of Americans where the rally's featured speaker represents a culmination of hopes and aspirations to so many Americans of all persuasions, with him being a son of Africa and America.
 
An update:

 As of April 23, 2008, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, a city and a county, with 98% of the vote counted, results are as follows: 

 Senator Barack Obama  65% 

Senator Hillary Clinton  35%