North Carolina Politician Resigns, In Klingon

Resign in Klingon

Apparently, for Indian Trail Councilman David Waddell, it was a good day to resign:

An Indian Trail councilman decided to boldly go where no politician has gone before – and tendered his resignation this week in the Klingon language.

Apparently David Waddell no longer wanted to live long and prosper on the board.

In an interview Thursday, Waddell said his resignation letter to Mayor Michael Alvarez was written in Klingon, the language of a proud warrior race in the “Star Trek” TV shows and movies, as an inside joke. But in case the mayor wasn’t up to speed with his Klingon, Waddell included a translation using Bing.com.

“Folks don’t know what to think of me half the time,” said Waddell, so “I might as well have one last laugh” on the board.

Alvarez called the letter childish and unprofessional. “It’s an embarrassment for Indian Trail, and it’s an embarrassment for North Carolina,” he said.

Waddell said he is resigning as of Jan. 31. He is in his first term on the board, and the four-year seat expires in December 2015.

He expressed frustration with what he saw as runaway development in the town as well as concerns with how requests for public information were being handled. In November, the counciltabled a plan to establish more fees for some public records and add more restrictions on how records could be viewed.

Waddell, a plumber, said he thought he would be more effective by coming to board meetings as a citizen and speaking out on issues. He said he also needed to devote time to mount a write-in campaign on the Constitution Party’s platform for Kay Hagan’s U.S. Senate seat.

No word on whether Waddell intends to host a farewell party. If he does, I suggest something involving the use of Klingon Pain Sticks, followed by a feast including Gagh and Heart of Targ.

FILED UNDER: Humor, Popular Culture, US Politics, , , ,
Doug Mataconis
About Doug Mataconis
Doug Mataconis held a B.A. in Political Science from Rutgers University and J.D. from George Mason University School of Law. He joined the staff of OTB in May 2010 and contributed a staggering 16,483 posts before his retirement in January 2020. He passed far too young in July 2021.

Comments

  1. al-Ameda says:

    But wait … potentially, there’s more:

    He said he also needed to devote time to mount a write-in campaign on the Constitution Party’s platform for Kay Hagan’s U.S. Senate seat.

  2. Mark Ivey says:

    North Carolina Constitution Party? Just a bunch of pro-life anti-socialist wackos…

  3. Neil Hudelson says:

    Gagh always reminded me of Korean Dancing Squid. (I think the squid is probably more disgusting).

  4. Tillman says:

    Alvarez called the letter childish and unprofessional. “It’s an embarrassment for Indian Trail, and it’s an embarrassment for North Carolina,” he said.

    Childish? Yes. Unprofessional? Yes. An embarrassment for North Carolina? Hell no!

    Also, wow, Constitution Party yokel. The party that the Tea Party actually identifies with.

  5. rudderpedals says:

    (The) quitter (.)

  6. OzarkHillbilly says:

    Ok, why so much ridicule for a guy who decided to have a little fun? Seriously, I doubt very much I would ever vote for this Tea Constitution Party yokel, but at least he has a sense of humor. Which is more than I can say for most people on the left. Not to mention a realistic view of how truly ridiculous 99.99999% of our politics is.

    It’s a joke folks. LAUGH.

  7. Tillman says:

    @OzarkHillbilly: Dude, I think this is great. More people should resign in conlang. Let the geek flag fly.

    Picture if half the sysadmins in the country decided one day to resign and all sent the same letter in Quenya. Glorious.

  8. Sejanus says:

    @al-Ameda: I’m sure that Ms. Hagan will be delighted to hear that someone is trying to spoil the campaign of whomever will be her Republican adversary.

  9. rachel says:

    Klingons don’t say, “Live long and prosper;” that’s the Vulcans. Klingons say, “Survive and succeed.”

  10. OzarkHillbilly says:
  11. grumpy realist says:

    @OzarkHillbilly: Maybe we’d do better having a government like Japan: the civil servants run everything and the politicians are comic relief getting their speeches and pictures in the paper.

    The only problem is every now and then one of the politicians goes off track and says something for the local audience that gets picked up and broadcast to the rest of the world, much to Japan’s embarrassment.

    I especially loved the character who, in the midst of a China-Taiwan spat, chose to chirp up and claim Taiwan for Japan. That resulted in about three weeks of the Japanese government running around trying to undo the damage.

  12. grumpy realist says:

    (P.S. Also–why Klingon? If this guy is as much of a Conservation Party devotee as he claims, he should have done it in Latin or Attic Greek.)

    If I ever run for POTUS, I’m going to put out an all-Latin platform and talk solely in Latin and watch the reporters go nuts trying to figure out what I said.

  13. rudderpedals says:

    Local government is hard work. After his second site plan review it probably didn’t seem like a lot of fun. For Mr Waddell, think Joe the Plumber, not Cincinnattus.

  14. Rob in CT says:

    Silly candidate wins office and discovers that getting something done is hard, resigns. Unimpressive. The Klingon is a nice touch, but otherwise, boo.