This is such a critical point, and one that a friend and former lover of mine had to face up close and personal.

He became a state trooper after he left the army, not particularly because he wanted to but because he couldn’t find a good job and they offered him excellent pay and benefits.

But after he joined the force, he came face to face with with institutionalized bullying, brutality, racism, and homophobia he could not morally tolerate.

But more to the point, he came face to face with the reality that he could do nothing about it without harming himself personally and professionally.

He went back to school in the evenings and then left the force to become an ER trauma nurse.