GREEN BAY, Wis. (WFRV) - It's a workshop dedicated to cooling down the political rhetoric ahead of the presidential election in November. "People sometimes can be very cruel and at each other's throats and I just think we need to find ways to tap the breaks and just cool things down," said David Haynes a longtime journalist who is now the Co-Lead of Wisconsin Alliance for Civic Trust (WisACT) one of the organizations that sponsored the workshop. "I think it's about building relationships, being thoughtful, being respectful and assuming good faith," he added. According to its website, WisACT "promotes values fundamental to our democratic republic, including support for fair, safe, and secure elections, and support for peaceful engagement." Haynes was a journalist for over 40 years and said right now is the most divided he's seen the country in a long time. Fox Crossing Hosts 11th annual Trick-or-Treat Trail "We've made politics into everything," Haynes said when asked why he thinks the country is so divided right now. "Everything has become about politics so we identify that way." Kate Zurn, who is the executive director of the Resolution Center Inc. in Oshkosh, facilitated the workshop on Tuesday night at UW Green Bay. She used a detailed PowerPoint presentation to walk through how we can better understand where people are coming from when they have differing opinions about political topics than we do. Another big focal point of her presentation was giving attendees strategies on how to have conversations rooted in mutual respect rather than anger or trying to prove the other person wrong. Also in the audience on Tuesday night was former Wisconsin governor Scott McCallum who is also a co-lead of WisACT. He said respectful political dialogue was something he tried to prioritize when he was in state government. Green Bay Basketball programs host successful Phoenix Phan Night "The fact is that we agree on many things, politically as well," he said. "Let's look at those, and lets differ respectfully. If you want democracy to continue you need to get involved. It's going down a slippery slope." The workshop comes ahead of very intense campaigning ahead of the presidential election next month, and both parties continue to relentlessly attack their opponents. "I think for sure we can come together and were going through a rough patch right now and sometime it's about building relationships with people you don't know," said Haynes. "We believe that 85 percent of the people in the state of Wisconsin want things to work, they want things done civilly, stick to the issues," said McCallum.