In broad terms, what is it trying to accomplish and, and why frame it as separation and unity?

Right.

Oh, those are great questions.

So first of all, this really fulfills part of Cyclone Civics' mission to provide civic education.

So our audience is the public, Iowa State students, and then of course, attorneys can, uh, come and spend the day with us and earn some continuing legal education credits, so we're grateful for that partnership with the Iowa Bar Association on that.

And in terms of unity and separation, I think that there's a real understanding, um, about the fact that there needs to be a separation of church and state, but that we, as Americans, are, in fact, unified, um, under the, the free exercise clause, where we can choose, uh, how to worship or to not worship, right? That, um, and to do that without state interference, and I'm certainly willing to explore that a bit more with you.

[laughs]

I, I think that it is.

... moved pressure to somewhere else?

Well, it does a lot of things, right? So one thing is that it makes the, um, the states less financially stable, and it's pretty clear that the states that have these kinds of limitations on raising taxes have a lower bond rating.

Well, what does that mean? That means that when the state government borrows money and s- by selling bonds, that they have to pay a higher interest rate in order to be able to attract buyers, uh, whether those are, you know, large-scale buyers like mu- you know, uh, you know, financial houses or investors or even individuals who might be buying bonds as an investment.

Um, secondly is that it will lead, uh, legislatures and also lower governments, right, counties and cities, to look for other revenue streams, right? So there's just been a lot of property tax reform that has cut property taxes, so a lot of local governments are already feeling that squeeze.

So that means...

What does that mean? It means user fees.

It means higher sales taxes and a variety of other taxes that might be regressive in nature.

Does this amendment shift more of the pressure onto property owners down the line?

Tell us about Phyllis Wheatley.

Yeah, Phyllis Wheatley is an absolutely remarkable figure in American history, right? So Phyllis Wheatley was kidnapped as a child and brought over to the United States in bondage.

So she's African-American, originally born in Africa.

and came over.

And the ship that she came over on was called the Phyllis, P-H-I-L-L-I-S, kind of an unusual spelling.

And even though she was a young child, she was then sold in bondage to the Wheatley family in Boston.

And that family recognized very early that Phyllis was a very gifted intellectual, a genius.

Talk about the relationship that Miss Warren had with the future president and first lady.