I felt honored when I was invited to contribute to this first issue of Nursing Law & Ethics. Thinking about what I might say, I noted that it is only about two years less than twenty since I began a series entitled, "The Law and The Nurse" in the American Journal of Nursing. It appeared for more than ten years before the AJN and I came to a parting of the ways. The end of my relationship with AJN was not due to what I said in its pages. Rather it was the result of adverse reactions to my views regarding licensure of health personnel.