RE:Steve Taylor- What's EPA's Action Based On This Dialogue ? REPLY: It Takes Time and Money

[patricia bonner <bonner.patricia@epa.gov>]

By the time you read this reply, my earlier reply to the question will, I hope, have been posted.    This note is to say how disappointing it is to hear that your contacts here in the Agency think this Dialogue is "a waste of time."  Those of us who have been knocking ourselves out to enable this exchange can't take that remark personally (though reading it causes tears in my eyes).   What that phrase says is that we have a culture to change here...  in terms of understanding the value of public involvement, the rights of citizens to influence decisions that affect them, and power sharing, and also in thinking about public access and the use of technology in the 21st century.  If we want civic responsibility and civility to be the norms of the future, this kind of event may help us move in the right direction.  pat