“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all Men are created equal, that they are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights that among these are Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness.”

These were possibly the clearest instructions that were given to us by our forefathers-Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness, but like many things, our president just doesn’t understand this. Instead, he demanded a constitutional amendment banning certain people from seeking this pursuit.

Whether or not you agree or disagree with the concept of union between two consenting adults of the same sex or not is really not the issue here.

On Tuesday night during his State of the Union address, President George W. Bush called for a change to our constitution. This document has guided us as a country for 227 years, and has only had 27 changes made to it; if President Bush gets his way that will be 28 changes.

It will join the same ranks as giving an 18-year-old the right to vote, which was the last major social change to the constitution made in 1971. I ask you, Mr. President, what part of “Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness” is not clear?

By two adults joining in a union, they are not infringing on your rights. You may not find it to your liking, but that is for you and your followers to deal with, preferably like an adult.

There are many things that George W. Bush did not cover in his speech that are relevant to our lives right here in Tennessee.

Let's talk a little about jobs.

The President failed to mention that 55,000 Tennesseans hit the unemployment lines under his reign. While Tennesseans are losing their jobs, our President is hard at work back in Washington trying to gut overtime pay from eight million Americans, more than 400,000 of them Tennessee workers.

Let’s look at what President Bush didn’t tell us about education. He forgot to mention “No Child Left Behind,” his program he underfunded by $69 million and left all children behind.

What about cuts that affect me, you ask? Well, President Bush proposed $1.2 billion in federal cuts to Tennessee schools this year alone. While tuition is on the rise, and college is becoming increasingly harder to pay for, our President is hard at work making sure he cuts federal loans and grants to college students trying to better their lives and their communities.

If the environment is your thing then you are in luck because he forgot to talk about that, too. President Bush opened nine million acres of our national forest to his friends in the Logging and Mining Industry and cut $10 million from the Environmental Protection Agency’s budget, the first year he was in office.

In summary, Republicans have always been viewed as being conservative, and Democrats as Liberal. As a matter of fact, the College Republicans at UTM make a point each time they submit an article to mention the Democrats and their “liberal” ways. Truth is when our president squanders a $5.6 trillion five-year surplus and turns it into a $5.5 trillion deficit, blowing $10 trillion in three years, that is reckless and dangerous regardless of how you cut it. As for the “liberal” label that the College Republicans keep trying to slap us with, I will close with a quote from Leonard Bernstein’ “A liberal is a man or a woman or a child that looks forward to a better day, a more tranquil night, and a bright, infinite future.”

Wil Hammond is a junior B.U.S major from Martin.