Watching some of the Live Earth performances on the BRAVO cable channel on Saturday, I was mostly bored. When Melissa Etheridge came on stage, however, I could tell something special was about to happen. She stood in silence and raised her energy. She made eye contact with the audience, and we knew this was serious business. Slowly she raised her guitar, and then began to play. Someone described the performance as being like a lightning bolt. It brought tears to my eyes.

Watch it, and you'll see why General Electric NBC didn't show it on the prime time highlights. Let's spread this around!

Songs:
Imagine That
(Don't know the title of the 2nd song, but I'll call it "I Believe," or "Be The Change")
I Need to Wake Up

Some of Melissa's words:

Imagine that

America
What happened to us? The last thing I remember I was in 8th grade...

People were doing things back then, because it was America, and people were doing things. people were standing up when there was an unjust war...

And you know what else happened? I remember when I was a kid, I remember when we had a president who was a criminal. Do you remember that? I remember America rose up and said "uh-uh."

...What happened to us? Maybe it's that we don't have time...I remember when the 70s and 80s came and I felt like it was really important for me to work really hard. To have a job and have a credit card, that was important...So maybe back then when they got rid of that president, maybe when they stopped that unjust war, maybe they weren't in debt. Maybe they had time. Maybe that's whats different - is our undying need to CONSUME and CONSUME and create things that people can CONSUME. I don't know, what happened to us? I want to know. I want to know, 'cause I think that we can do better than that Amerca! I KNOW that we can do better than that. I know! I know that tomorrow morning we're going to do better than that. I know that Monday morning when we all go back to work, we're going to be looking for the truth. 'Cause truth is what sets us free, and truth is what rises to the top. And when justice is being obstructed, Americans rise up and speak the truth - I know that about my country. Yeah, imagine that. Imagine all of us rising up on Monday morning and saying Enough! Enough! I don't care if my credit cards are maxed out. I am stopping now and saying Enough! I am changing! That's right, imagine that, baby, imagine that!

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...I have achieved the American dream - the big beautiful American dream is mine. And that's no easy feat, 'cause I'm different. At least that's what they say - they say I'm different, but you know what? As of today I'm done. I'm done being different, OK? Alright? Because I think that's how they have kept us down for so long. I think that that's what happened - we stopped thinking about ourselves as Americans, and we started to look at all the differences - they're a different color, or maybe they're a different age, or maybe they have a different sexual preference...

...you know what the American dream is - the American dream is freedom! Freedom!!...

Tomorrow, you pick yourself up, you say "from now on I'm going to tell the truth! ...and the truth is I am not different! I am not! I am an American, and you know what? ...I am an American, which makes me a citizen of the whole wide world! ...we're going to show how to speak the truth, no matter how inconvenient it is, because there is no difference between us and them...I believe, I believe, I believe in love.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MGtCiDfcIos

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JI8nyOqHakQ