Excerpt:
Most everyone is seated with a paper plate full of chicken or ham rolls when Sam Rasoul takes his spot before the group, ready to start.
Sport coat tossed over a chair, in jeans and open-collar dress shirt, Rasoul has an out-of-town polish. But he grew up here in Roanoke. He's the city's delegate to the Virginia General Assembly, and these three dozen residents have asked for his advice.
They're part of a grass-roots group looking to fight corruption in politics, an issue they believe should cut across party lines. But most are liberals, and Donald Trump's victory in the presidential election has left them feeling that many of their fellow citizens are alien creatures. They don't even know how to talk with them.