What an exhilarating two weeks! I read every message, and I must say thanks you to everyone who contribute to the richness of the discussion. As Linda Breggin said, you have provided more than we expected and we will have hard work ahead of us reviewing the summaries and re-reading messages with the details to distill what was said into a summary report. Your ideas have been exciting to watch develop. You have helped one another, ELI and EPA to think outside the box.
I think you will agree that the online Dialogue technique is a great way to examine and define issues. A few public meetings or focus groups around the country could not produce the diversity of opinions and approaches that this event did. Dialogues are not quite online conferences because you don't have to miss anything happening in another room. You don't have to wait for the procedings to learn what happened when you were off line. A dialogue seem freer than a panel discussion, because everyone is equally able to express his/her thoughts. No one is watching or cutting you off after the time limit as can happen in public meetings or hearings. And, once you see how the web site works, it's easy to participate.
Now that I have participated in this event, I can see many ways that this technique can be useful right now to EPA, other federal agencies, large associations, state agencies and in the near future, to all levels of government. This is a tool that can engage people in their government's planning and decision making, and encourage civic responsibility.
You are probably all familiar with Thomas Jefferson's ideas about the people and their government. I recently found a quote from a speech by the first EPA Administrator, William Doyle Ruckelshaus that I'd like to share....seems appropriate as an ending to the Dialogue: "Thomas Jefferson once pointed out that if the people appeared not enlightened enough to exercise their control of government, the solution was not to take away the control but to "inform their discretion by education." The cooperative processes that are springing up around the country are doing just that, giving to large numbers of citizens a new comprehension of the complexity involved in government decisions, out of which has got to come a heightened appreciation of, and tolerance for, the necessary work of government. If these processes work, if they spread, if they become an indispensable part of government at all levels, we may take it as a sign that we, as a people, have moved up a grade in democracy's school. It holds out the hope that, eventually, the United States will be ready for self-government."
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