A North Carolina politician showed his “Star Trek” stripes to the community, submitting a four-sentence resignation letter in Klingon.
David Waddell said he was stepping down from his first term after two years on the Town Council in Indian Trail, N.C., using the language of the sci-fi show to add some humor to the gesture.
“Teach (the) city (the) constitution. I will return next time to witness victory. Resignation occurs in 2014 the 31st of January. Perhaps today is a good day (to) resign,” read the English translation of his message, which was delivered to the town’s mayor on New Year’s Eve.
The plumber-turned-local-politcian said he drafted the unorthodox letter since “folks don’t know what to think of me half the time. … I might as well have one last laugh,” according to The Charlotte Observer.
But not everyone was amused by his Trekkie antic: Mayor Michael Alvarez told the Daily News the letter is an “embarrassment.”
“I wish him the best, live long and prosper. I don’t know what else to say,” Alvarez said.
In a separate letter, in English, Waddell explained that he had grown frustrated with the town’s development plans and the local government’s response to public-records access.
Though he never revealed his true Trekkie to the council, his shtick in meetings was to consistently vote “no” for all items, including votes to adjourn meetings.
Alvarez said the conservative Waddell was a minority among the progressive liberals in local government, who are trying to build up the area’s infrastructure after it flourished from its proximity to the banking hub of Charlotte and Atlanta, which is a three-hour drive away.
Waddell balked at the development plans, calling the town’s proposal to build community parks a “socialist” idea, the mayor said.
Waddell, whose term would have expired in 2015, still plans to attend town meetings and hopes to run for Kay Hagan’s U.S. Senate seat as a write-in candidate representing the Constitution Party.
Klingon is a warrior language from the TV series, developed by American linguist Marc Okrand.
The language continues to evolve thanks to the Klingon Language Institute, a nonprofit that promotes the language and culture. KLI founder Dr. Lawrence M. Schoen told the News that there isn’t really a word for “resignation” in Klingon so Waddell translated the English word with the language’s orthography, “which really doesn’t work.”
A true Klingon speaker would have simply said “pItlh,” which translates to “done,” in order to mark the end of an event.
“Still, it’s bought him a bit more publicity on his way out, possibly more than he had while in office,” Schoen said.
Bing, Microsoft’s search engine, provides English-to-Klingon translation, though Google Translate does not.