Steve Barnes, TimesUnion
During their pre-Halloween weekend, about a dozen area residents will do something that sounds genuinely scary: spend seven hours talking face to face with others who hold opposing political views.
We are, it has become commonly understood, a nation divided: Republican/Democrat, conservative/liberal, pro-Trump/anti-Trump. And those divisions are bitter, witness born on social media, on traditional media, around family tables and at political rallies. People seethe with rage. Often they scream. Sometimes they assault. Relationships suffer. Or shatter.
