Molly Ivins: You Don't Make Yourself Safer By Making Yourself Less Free

According to its website:

The Mario Savio Memorial Lecture and Young Activist Award were created:
- To honor the memory of Mario Savio and the spirit of moral courage and vision which he and countless other activists of his generation exemplified;
- To promote the values that Mario Savio struggled to advance throughout his life: human rights, social justice, and freedom of expression;
- To provide a forum where young people can connect with older activists to understand their common ideals and find inspiration and nourishment for activism today;
- To recognize and encourage young activists engaged in the struggle to build a more humane and just society.

In the following video (2 minutes, 33 secconds -- h/t Frances Langum at Crooks & Liars), the incomparable Molly Ivins, giving the 8th Annual Mario Savio Memorial Lecture, tells the story of a couple of small boys in Texas who are scared in a henhouse by a harmless chicken snake. When chided for their irrational fear, one of the boys replies, "Yes, ma'am, but some things'll scare you so bad you'll hurt yourself."

She goes on to say:

Now, don't you know that's what we do again and again in this country: get so scared, so scared -- of a real menace, not a chicken snake. Scared of communism, scared of crime, scared of drugs, scared of illegal aliens, scared of terrorists; so scared that we hurt ourselves, make the same mistake over and over again. We think we can make ourselves safer by making ourselves less free. I'll tell you something: When you make yourself less free, all that happens afterward is that you are less free; you are not safer.