Jared Johnson

August 28, 2008 • 10:12 pm 2

Free At Last

Today is the 45th anniversary of Martin Luther King Jr’s “I Have A Dream” speech given during the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom in 1963. I have been thinking all day about the American Civil Rights Movement, and the significance of Senator Barack Obama’s acceptance speech tonight at the Democratic National Convention.

I have contemplated most today about how thankful I am for parents who exposed me to people that were different than me at a formative age.

One of my earliest memories is when I was around 3 years old and I saw an African-American family at Logan Airport in Boston, MA. It was the first moment in my short life that I distinguished the difference between the color of my skin and the color of someone from another race. Fearfully, I ducked my head behind the legs of my father. I am thankful that my dad did not allow my fearful reaction to pass without making it a teaching moment. He lovingly grabbed my hand, bent down to my level, and asked, “Isn’t that family beautiful? Don’t they have a pretty color of skin?”

My parents made time for many more teaching moments about different races and cultures during my childhood. I might be a different person today without those moments.

Filed under: Family, Life , barack obama, civil rights, dnc, free at last, i have a dream, martin luther king jr, mlk

March 15, 2008 • 10:14 am 0

2nd Anniversary

Jessica and I celebrated our 2nd wedding anniversary this week. The actual date was on Tuesday, March 11th. I had a midterm due on Wednesday so we delayed our celebration until Thursday night.

We went to Artie’s Restaurant in Fairfax, VA. We are Great American Restaurants (GAR) buffs, and this was one of their restaurants that we had never visited before. It also happened to be really close to the Patriot Center at George Mason University where we had tickets to see the Boomin’ Beyond Measure Tour on Thursday night. We weren’t as jazzed about Artie’s as we have been on our first visit to other GAR restaurants. Normally, I would expect more unique items on the menu, but most of the menu looked identical to the Carlyle menu. Carlyle is so close to our home, that we probably won’t ever go out of our way to Fairfax to return to Artie’s.

The Boomin’ Beyond Measure Tour with tobyMac and Jeremy Camp was a great show. Unfortunately, our tickets were up in the rafters, and the Patriot Center acoustics aren’t the greatest even if you have good seats.

Jeremy Camp was sick and yet his voice sounded stronger than ever. He played mostly older songs that people recognized.

tobyMac and the DiverseCity rocked the house. DJ Maj (turntables) even broke out a trombone, when he, GabeReal (vocals), and Tim Rosenau (guitar, trumpet) played an awesome horn section intro to one of the songs.

Matthew West opened the show by himself with an acoustic guitar. I had never heard more than one of his songs, but I will check him out now after hearing several great songs.

Like I said, overall it was a great concert, and it was even better celebrating two awesome years with my lovely wife!

Filed under: Family, Life , anniversary, Arties, Carlyle, DiverseCity, Family, Jeremy Camp, jessica, Matthew West, tobyMac

February 27, 2008 • 9:33 am 0

Happy Birthday Jessica!

Happy Birthday to my lovely wife! Unfortunately, I have class tonight, so we will be delaying our Bday celebration by one day so I can cook her dinner. I did make a cake and we served it at small group last night. I love this girl more than I could ever express in words!

on Flickr – Photo Sharing!

Tags: Jessica, birthday, billy goat trail, great falls national park,

Filed under: Family, Life , billy goat trail, birthday, great falls national park, jessica

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