A Contract with Americans

1. I will listen to you dispassionately without judgment

2. I will seek to understand your point of view

3. I will provide you with my reasons, facts and experiences as honestly as I can

4. I will work to avoid name calling and disparaging remarks about you, your ideas or your opinions.

5. I will harness my passion and intellect to achieve real solutions to real problems

6. I will work toward outcomes and conclusions that represent us both

7. I will eschew right/wrong, binary thinking for compromise and shared values

8. I will not allow my beliefs and decisions to be ruled by fear, superstition or intellectual dishonesty

9. I will place no conditions on this commitment

10. I will honor the human spirit which binds us all