Transcript of the ending of Self-Pollution

Eddie Vedder:

You know, I shouldn't get heavy on you before we go but, I'll read you a couple things. First of all, one of the affiliates into this thing called voters for choice -- it's a little different from Rock for Choice -- is Gloria Steinem. I've read a lot about her, and just knowing her work for Ms. magazine -- I don't know if you've ever noticed when you pick up a magazine like Rolling Stone or Spin, boy you can count the pages that you've spent your hard earned money on and advertisement.

Before -- that's how I kinda read magazines, you know I pick them up and count the pages of ads before the first article. You know, give me some text. And I want to know, you know, how few and far between it is; and ideally I'd like a very dense magazine, you know. But anyways, Rolling Stone, or even Spin, you know, fine people -- 20 pages -- 23 pages I think was one of the Rolling Stone ones. They're gonna be very upset, but no this is the truth. And they can talk to me about it or whatever they want. But you look at a magazine like Ms., and Gloria Steinem and some other people started this thing. And there are no advertisements in Ms. Magazine.

One of the -- probably the main reason isn't just to be cool. It's because if you have -- let's say you have a -- I'm just gonna throw out a name, not to get in trouble [this is my best guess -- he spoke to fast on that part and I couldn't make it out.] but let's say you have an agreement with Chanel to run some ads and they write you after they see an article about lesbians in your magazine -- in your Ms. magazine -- and they say we're not too comfortable with you using the word lesbian, talking about lesbian -- I shouldn't have said Chanel because it could have been anybody. I don't know if it was them. It could have been, you know, Heinz ketchup or whatever. But the advertisers call and let people know they're very uncomfortable with this, and that they won't advertise in your magazine if they continue to keep talking about lesbians, for example.

And this is reality. We all have to deal with it and educate ourselves. And this whole contradiction between not educating ourselves and yet at the same time expecting -- what is it, celibacy or (pause) just-say-no? It's gotta be education. You know, we have to have educated people out there, and from a young age they're gonna learn about this stuff one way or another. And they might as well be educated to make a correct decision when the dilemma comes up, when the issue comes up.

Anyways, I'm gonna go ahead and read you a memo from Voters for Choice. Now this written on December 30, 1994, from Julie Burton, who's the national director. I'm just gonna read it here. You can turn this off if you want or whatever. It's no big deal. I'm not gonna preach. I don't give a fuck. I'm just gonna read it:

• "I can't believe it happened again. How much do we have to bear? And the sad thing is it's not going away. There are fanatics out there who will stop at nothing including murder to force their views on us all. Today --again this is December 30 -- seven people were the victims of another brutal antichoice attack. Two women are dead, five are wounded. The assassin entered (another pause here, and a sigh) the Planned Parenthood Clinic of greater Boston shortly after 10 a.m., pulled a 22-caliber semiautomatic rifle from a dufflebag, killed the receptionist and wounded three other people. He continued the carnage a mile down the road at the Preterm Health Services Clinic where he killed one person and wounded two more."

  "The women killed today join an evergrowing list of individuals assaulted for providing critical and legal health services to women: Dr. David Gunn, murdered, shot in the back 3/10/93; Dr. George Tiller, attempted murder, shot in both arms, 8/19/93; Dr. John Britton, murdered, shot in the head, 7/29/94; James Barrett, murdered, died escorting John Britton, 7/29/94; June Barrett, attempted murder, widowed and wounded, 7/29/94 (that was her husband that was killed); and Dr. Gary Romales, attempted murder, shot in the legs, 11/8/94 (that's besides the seven people last week or whenever it was -- a week and a half ago). [the parts in parentheses here are what sounded to be comments from EV as he was reading the letter.] "How many more victims will there be before patients personnel and doctors won't have to face the intimidation of terrorists? Prochoice forces long have contended that there is a national strategy of murder within the antichoice community. Recently we discovered a how-to terrorist handbook, the third edition in three years, published by the Army of God (pause) and distributed nationally. The book provides step by step instructions on how to assault clinics with bombs, chemical agents, and other violent means. Since it was first published, attacks on clinics have tripled. Many antichoice leaders continue to refuse to take responsibility for their rhetoric and the violence it encourages. (Listen close to this part) Operation Rescue's Rev. Pat Mahoney blamed today's violence on the freedom of access to clinic entrances law (that's the face law) for opening the doorway to vigilante actions by harrassing and intimidating peaceful protesters. As you know the face law is the only law on the books to protect family planning clinics from violence. The solution is not to take away the one small protection of afforded clinics"

What they're saying is that by protecting them they're urging them to protest in a more violent way. By not letting them walk in the front door they're saying that they create a more violent situation on the sidewalk.

It's kinda heavy. We're having a good time on the radio and whatever, but it's good to take care of this stuff and you guys should know and -- anyway here was a quote from Gloria. Actually this was a note and it said "Gloria hadn't hear about the shootings until she got my note yesterday. Good thing we did. Here's her quote."

• And she said, "Nothing could be more clear" -- and this takes it to another level so if you're still with me, then listen close. "Nothing could make more clear than this Massachusetts massacre that the deepest message of the antiabortion movement [he repeats] the deepest message of the antiabortion movement is not prolife but antiwomen, not mutual respect but terrorist control. These antiabortion terrorists continue to show us what they will do. The question is what the U.S. government will do and its voters will do. When we finally make clear that the lives and freedom of women of all races are as important as the airlines, the World Trade Center and other targets that threaten male as well as female life and business as usual"

What they're saying is we've totally -- when there was problems with the World Trade Center we took care of it; when there were problems at the airlines with terrorist activity we took care of it. Nothing has been done so far. And there's -- these clinics are obvious targets. It goes on to say "Will crimes against women finally be taken as seriously as others? Until we see culprits punished and crimes prevented, every man and woman in America must make the protection of our community and our clinics a personal priority. If we have to stand guard outside their doors ourselves we must make sure this never happens again. I pledge myself to that and I send my deepest sympathy to all who have suffered from this terrorism and to all who support freedom in spite of it."

Well, there you have it. So we're gonna play next week and see what we can do, do a little press conference [Geez I hope CSPAN covers it!]. It's something we all -- it's just a right. We voted on it, it was taken care of and -- I don't know, it's hard stuff to think about.

Well, I think we're just about out of here. I'm gonna play one more song and say goodbye. Thanks for listening and we'll try to end it on a better note. [Ends with numerous thanks and plays "What a Wonderful World" by Louis Armstrong.]

Thanks to J. Ken (aka moondoggy) for typing this out.

Translated to html by Greg Benedict.