"Anything that stepped beyond their narrow idea of the norm, of what was good for society as they saw it, was punished for the 'good' of the community. Everyone was to be exactly as they wished you to be. Simply expressing your own individual identity could have you branded actively dangerous to the Union's ideals."

He's tense with a certain kind of bone-deep anger that's never really gone away, no matter how far from Union territory he is. It's the kind of anger that comes not from knowing of something second hand, but being a target himself.