Interesting comment was overheard at the recent biennial meeting in Kingston, Ontario of the International Joint Commission, a binational U.S.-Canada panel dating back to 1909 that in the 1980s and early 1990s provided a forum for citizens to air their grievances and concerns about the need for Great Lakes cleanup. It also in those days galvanized the news media and public to demand faster action.
The IJC had scheduled this year, at the very end of its three days of meetings, a public comment period. This also happened two years ago in Ann Arbor, when many had left or were leaving to catch planes, trains and automobiles. Great way to minimize and undermine serious interaction between the public and its government.
Two commissioners were overheard in the men's room saying to each other something along these lines just before the public comment session, as they contributed their runoff to the eastern end of the Great Lakes Basin: "How fast do you think we can get this over with?"