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On December 30, 1994, John C. Salvi III, calm and determined, walked into the Planned Parenthood clinic in the upper-middle class Boston suburb of Brookline, produced a hunting rifle and opened fire. Salvi then strode down Beacon Street to Preterm Health Services and continued his assault. The result: the senseless bloodshed of two young women and the wounding of five others.
The following day, Salvi's killing spree was stopped as he attempted to enter a third abortion clinic in Norfolk, Va. Soon after, Kay Hanley, lead singer of the Boston band Letters to Cleo, decided to take some action of her own by organizing a five-day benefit in February, 1995, which involved over 37 bands from the Boston area and helped raise $47,000 for "Friends of Shannon," a memorial fund set up by one of the victim's families.
Now, along with Dicky Barrett of the Mighty Mighty Bosstones, Hanley has put together a 16-song benefit record set for release on Nov. 5, as well as an Oct. 29 benefit show at New York's Westbeth Theater co-hosted by Barrett and Jennifer Trynin. Morphine, Letters To Cleo, Janovitz, Fuzzy and the Gigolo Aunts are also scheduled to perform.
"Safe and Sound: A Benefit In Response To The Brookline Clinic Violence," includes the best and brightest of the Boston area music scene, including Bill Janovitz of Buffalo Tom, Morphine, Belly, Tracy Bonham, as well as Letters to Cleo and the Bosstones. Hanley and Barrett aren't trying to change the world, they just want to make sure something like this never happens again.
"Once the decision to have an abortion is made, a person must be able to enter a building safely and without bullshit," says Hanley. "To enter a Planned Parenthood doesn't necessarily mean you're walking into a building to terminate a pregnancy. Chances are you're going for birth control, pre-natal care or education."
"Safe and Sound's" best moments come from the Bosstones and Bill Janovitz. The Bosstones' "That's The Impression I Get," which was written in the wake of the Brookline tragedy, hit close to home for a band whose lyrics usually revolve around drinking beer and plaid shoes. "It's a desperate feeling when you think about what the families of the victims went through," Barrett says. "Could I go on after such a tragedy? I don't know and I'm not sure I want to find out."
Janovitz's "Coming Down with Something" paints a bleak picture of the irreconciable differences polarizing the two sides of the abortion issue. "The project is a way to circumvent the growing chasm between the whole us vs. them mentality," says Janovitz. "Rather than respond with anger and violence, it's a way of responding with something positive."
All proceeds from the "Safe and Sound" project will go to the National Clinic Access Project, a Los Angeles-based organization which aims to keep women's health clinic's open in the wake of violence and harassment by the pro-life movement. A division of the Feminist Majority Foundation, the NCAP is the largest such organization in the country. Additional proceeds will go to six Boston-area women's shelters.
NCAP National Organizer and National Rock for Choice Coordinator Duvergne Gaines hopes that through music the "Safe and Sound" project will help more young people become aware of the seriousness of this issue. "Music is one of the most effective weapons we have for reaching a broad audience with this information," says Gaines. "Many young people don't really have a handle on how severe these threats are. I hope that Shannon Lowney and Lee Ann Nichols [the two women killed in Brookline] are forever