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“Kill a man and you are an assassin.
Kill millions of men and you are a conqueror.
Kill everyone and you are a god.”
Bishop Beilby Porteus - Bishop of London (1731-1809)
Who are the lone men
Out to destroy our lives
What drives them?
Today a lone man,
An assassin
Has more power at his fingertips
Than armies had centuries ago.
Today a lone man,
A dictator
Can turn his country into a desert
Overrun by terrorists
As his people migrate into the abyss.
Today a lone man,
A mad man – a jealous man
A man with a tank - With a backpack
With a car bomb - With a rifle
With a knife - With an atomic drone
Can carry out a mission
Then get fed in prison.
Today a lone man,
A pilot
Can ram his plane into a building, a mountain, the sea
And leave us to grieve a great mystery.
Today a lone man,
A bigot
Can bully the U.S. electorate
And turn politics into a circus.
Always, a lone man could change the world
An assassin,
By killing great men with new ideas
But never the ideas themselves.
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