“Over himself and over his own body and mind, the individual is sovereign.”

– John Stuart Mill, “On Liberty”

There is perhaps no more basic proposition that as an individual, you own your own life. Yet the basis of most political theory over the last several millennia has actually argued against this notion. The concepts of freedom and the associated idea of sovereignty over one’s own body and mind are relatively new political concepts. The greatest manifestation of this idea is only about 240 years old, and it dates back to the early days of America. Let’s hope that as the decades pass, this basic supposition remains at the heart of this nation’s political milieu.