Time of global crisis

The pavilion of the nations was an awesome place that day

With the throb of martial music 'neath a fiery display,

With the flags of all the nations lifted upward to the stars,

With kings and queens and princes stepping from their stately cars.

The peoples of the planet were represented there,

For the world had been invited to come and think and share.

In the midst of global crisis of a hundred separate kinds,

They came for new solutions, for a meeting of the minds.

We must have all new answers, "said the leaders of the day.

"We come from starving peoples, bankrupt countries, disarray. 

Ugly wars are raging 'round us, rivers, flood, and cities burn,

Murder, arson, rape and pillage--death awaits at every turn."

"We sense," they said, "that we have been in every way betrayed.

Our dreams are now in ruins and are people are dismayed.

Our hope, once placed in state, in church, in God, in love, in race,

Is gone, along with faith itself. What now shall take its place?"

http://hopetotheend.com/man.htm