By any other name; advice for Austin; Arlington Yacht Club; Episcopal Church lawsuit

By any other name

A treaty by any other name is still a treaty.

The Obama Administration has been negotiating what it characterizes as a “deal” with Iran over development of nuclear weapons. Why call it a deal rather than what it actually is — a treaty?

The obvious answer is to try and avoid the constitutional mandate that limits the president’s power to make a treaty to only those agreements with other countries that have been madewith the advice and consent of the Senate and with the concurrence of two-thirds of the Senators present when such consent is given. See Article II, Section 2.

Of course, President Obama knows that he cannot get two-thirds of the Senate to agree to this controversial deal that he is making with Iran. So he has decided to simply go around the Senate and play a little word game by calling what he is doing a deal rather than a treaty.

Nothing new here. When the Constitution gets in Obama’s way, he has a history of simply ignoring it, citing some dreamed-up overreaching power that he thinks he has.

This is dangerous and scary stuff for our democratic form of government!

— William Brown, Arlington

Advice for Austin

I would like to remind all our elected officials they are representing all citizens, not just the ones with whom they agree.

What is happening in D.C. is tearing this country apart.

What is happening in Austin is just as bad.

Not welcoming any citizen to an elected official’s office or refusing to speak to any citizen or representative of the people is inexcusable and should not be tolerated in this state.

— Beryl Dowd,

North Richland Hills

Arlington Yacht Club

I would like to bring to your attention if you do not already know about the plight of the Arlington Yacht Club.

The current mayor, Robert Cluck, wants to remove the yacht club from its premises.

A scheduled May 4 presentation at City Council proposes to “replace the boat house at Simpson Park with a new public multi-use facility or small restaurant.”

The mayor has stated that the yacht club is an eyesore. I am sure this is because he lives in the estate adjacent to the lake on Bay Club.

It is my suspicion that someone with influence plans to invest in the new public multi-use facility or small restaurant.

The forcing out of the yacht club, which is to take place at the end of March, means that the yacht club is having to look for premises on the Fort Worth side of Lake Arlington.

— George S.C. Lamb,

Arlington

Episcopal Church suit

Concerning the March 10 letter from Con Shuck regarding this month’s trial-court ruling in the long-running Episcopal Church case:

He would do well to read the judge’s order before criticizing the newspaper’s coverage and urging his side to continue with the suit it brought in an effort to turn the majority out of their churches.

After nearly six years of legal proceedings, the court found March 2 that Bishop Jack Iker is the head of the Episcopal Diocese of Fort Worth and its nonprofit corporation, which holds title to church property.

As for his comment that someone stacked the vote that separated the diocese from the Episcopal Church in 2008, does he really believe that the bishop could have “stacked” the churches with lay members who voted 8-to-2 to split?

Shuck and others may be deeply disappointed by the way the vote went and how the judge ruled, but it does no good for Christians to call their fellow believers cheaters and thieves.

— Suzanne Gill,

Fort Worth

This story was originally published March 20, 2015 at 7:03 PM with the headline "By any other name; advice for Austin; Arlington Yacht Club; Episcopal Church lawsuit."