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Personal Dilemma

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Personal Dilemma Paper
Nancy A. Rishavy
University of Phoenix
Ethics in Criminal Justice
CJA 413
Matt Giordano
September 12, 2010
Personal Dilemma Paper I haven’t worked for quite some time and I am at home 99% of the time so I really haven’t had any moral dilemmas to speak of but I do have friends that have served our country that have just recently retired or are still enlisted that have moral dilemmas on a daily basis. Here is the dilemma of one of my friends. On Feb. 2, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told members of Congress that "allowing gays and lesbians to serve openly would be the right thing to do." He spoke words that she has waited years to hear: "We have in place a policy which forces young men and women to lie about who they are in order to defend their fellow citizens. For her personally, it came down to integrity -- theirs as individuals, and ours as an institution." She had joined the Reserve Officers Training Corps as a freshman at the University of Michigan. In her junior year, she fell in love and realized that she was gay. This was all a bit preoccupying, but what overwhelmed her most was the weight of having to lie to the military. "Don't ask, don't tell" is a federal law that prohibits military service by openly gay Americans. It requires the nearly impossible of those who still want to serve -- that you be celibate and completely closeted. Anyone who knows you're gay is a risk, so the closet often extends into your personal life. She faced a moral dilemma -- serving her country or upholding her integrity and honor. This dilemma haunted her as graduation neared. Since she loved the military and couldn't imagine never wearing the uniform again, she tried to make the best of the situation. She decided to commission into the Reserves and take on a civilian job so she could at least live

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