Death threats are now part of my life. Over the years, the threats have varied in their intensity, and I have had to have a private security team at several speaking events. As a writer, I lack the ability to afford that level of security at home. But as someone who has studied authoritarian states my whole life, I know how this tends to end. I try to take the attitude my fellow St. Louisan writer Elijah Lovejoy held over a century ago and speak out while I have the chance.
