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70 The PCB Magazine • July 2017 manifold bigger than any other country on the planet. Those are big, big issues to resolve. You don't want to impulsively address those issues. You want to do it the right way and you want to do it in a way that's going to make it good for all Americans and protect and defend American values and American interests. I would urge ev- erybody to just take a deep breath and not be- lieve necessarily everything that comes across the social media platforms and the 24-hour-a- day opinion cycle about what's working and not working in our nation's capital. One of the greatest examples of two great, patriotic Ameri- cans that understood this phenomenon was Tip O'Neill and Ronald Reagan. During the day, the world spun around them, the media. I remem- ber Sam Donaldson was Ronald Reagan's nem- esis in the media. He always loved to try and catch Ronald Reagan with a tough question. I can tell you about Ronald Reagan and Tip O'Neill. Many people did not realize that in the evenings after the legislative day was fin- ished that Tip O'Neill would grab a bottle of Irish whiskey, two cigars and go over to the White House. They would sit there in the White House theater and watch cowboy movies and talk about the things that mattered in the big scheme of things. Things like how to bring the Soviet Union to its knees and bring down the Iron Curtain, how to bring about tax cuts that produced one of the best economic growth pe- riods in American history. That's what they were doing behind the scenes. We need American governing agents to be able and have the intestinal fortitude to do the same kinds of things. Goldman: I agree, absolutely. Bill, thank you so much for your time. I really appreciate it. I could listen to you talk all day because it's very encouraging and very uplifting. Thank you so much. Johnson: Thank you very much, Patty. It's good talking with you. Have a great day. Goldman: You too, thank you. PCB IMPACT Interviews __________________________________ Ending Thoughts by Patty Goldman As I said in the title, you had to be there. All the interviews, all the thoughts, impressions, comments from the group cannot nearly cap- ture the enthusiasm, the willingness to listen, the subjects discussed, the essence of the meet- ings with departments, representatives, and senators. You really had to be there. Washington, D.C. is an impressive city with massive white stone government buildings ev- erywhere. The energy is unmistakable and it's easy to get caught up in it. But if you think elected officials sit in pretty offices all day gab- bing, arguing or eating fancy meals, you are mistaken. More than once we saw our speak- ers rush off, a staff person with schedule beside them, and neither able to join us for lunch be- cause another meeting was scheduled immedi- ately following ours. More impressive was that IPC could coordi- nate the schedules of (by my count) 10−12 sig- nificant speakers, group meetings at the EPA, White House and up on the Hill, and individ- ual meetings with numerous individual sena- tors and representatives, all within a two-day window and without conflicts. For those of you who attended, you know how valuable this was. For those of you who didn't, you missed one heck of an event. PCB Bhawnesh Mathur shakes hands with EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt (right).