Here’s your invitation: step into this stately castle where dozens of people from all over Germany plus two North Americans are gathered to celebrate the centennial of Professor Arno Peters’ birth.

An impromptu choir of family members walks onto the stage, then launches into “Hallelujah,” that most popular of all Leonard Cohen’s songs.

Don’t remember the song? No problem: you can hear it sung by the artist himself on this YouTube video. Either way, Cohen’s point is clear: even if life is not what it could have been …even if everything turns out wrong, he’ll appear before the lord of song with just one word upon his tongue, “Hallelujah!”

“It works.”

That was Donald Trump’s straight answer. The question was, “What do you think of the Canadian health care system?” The timing was while Trump was seeking his party’s nomination for the highest office in the land. The answer was short, simple, clear. No hint of an if, an and or a but.

Then, in the second debate with Hillary Clinton, he relabelled the Canadian approach “catastrophic.” As for the U.S. (“Obamacare”) system, he said, Clinton’s proposed changes would make it more like Canada’s – “a disaster.”

“The worst refugee crisis since the terrible days of World War II” is how statisticians describe it. Those who don’t have the luxury of looking at it from the safety of a computer screen may have a different view. No focus on stats, just life-and-death decisions. Will my loved ones be safe? Is the unknown guy who has promised – for a price – to get us to Europe, trustworthy? If we do escape death here – whether it comes suddenly in the night or by slow torture – will we be rejected and ordered to go back home?

The UN has called a Summit on Refugees and Migrants; President Obama will convene a Summit focusing on action the very next day. I invite your attention to these human stories against that background. They are as varied as the range of public opinion.