City Councilman Resigns Using Klingon

Virtucon writes "A city councilman in Indian Trail Town, North Carolina has resigned and opted to write his letter of resignation in Klingon. David Waddell is obviously a fan of Star Trek. I wonder if the other council members know what the hell he wrote? I'm sure a nice Qu'vatlh would have sufficed."

Comments

Good luck to him...

[just_another_sean]

Or should I say Kapla?

terrible article

[schneidafunk]

Where's a link to the actual resignation letter?

More informative article

[MrEricSir]

This NY Daily article has much more info, including the resignation letter.

My favorite part is the mayor's response: "I wish him the best, live long and prosper. I don't know what else to say."

Re:I'm guessing..

[Anonymous Coward]

Especially for a Klingon. I would have expected a lot more blood and growling.

Re:I'm guessing..

[Bill_the_Engineer]

It looks like he was a buffoon. He voted no on everything including adjournment of the meetings. To top it off, it looks like the only reason he resigned was because he got bored and wanted to perform one last stunt. No one was forcing him to resign.

The icing on the cake being that the idiot still plans to attend the meetings.

Re:Klingons do not resign.

[isorox]

Since when does a Klingon resign from anything? This must be a hoax. The only reason the word "resign" would be in the Klingon language is to describe other weakling species. Doh!

Sure, if they were signing a deed for a new ship, and then spilt bloodwine over the signature, they're have to re-sign it.

Re:Klingons do not resign.

[mrchaotica]

You're right! From the nydailynews article:

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.

Re:Klingons do not resign.

[SuiteSisterMary]

Klingons do not lease. Nor do they buy. Klingons take what they want, over the bodies of financiers and salespeople!

Not news. Getting elected with Klingon would be.

[xxxJonBoyxxx]

>> David Waddell is obviously a (nutjob)

OK, so the guy resigned in Klingon - probably before his local constituency voted him out. However, if he'd run and won using Klingon, that would be news.

Seriously, if you're going to learn a language, why not Spanish or Chinese something else you can use to communicate with and represent real people with real problems. (If you're a politician, that's really your only job.)

Why not Congress?

[Valdrax]

It looks like he was a buffoon. He voted no on everything including adjournment of the meetings. To top it off, it looks like the only reason he resigned was because he got bored and wanted to perform one last stunt. No one was forcing him to resign.

Nope. He's a conservative politician in a primarily progressive area whose main shtick (as you mentioned) was to simply vote "No" on everything regardless of sense or reason. So, naturally, he's resigning to campaign for the U.S. Senate where his skills are clearly in high demand right now.

Re:Why not Congress?

[i kan reed]

He's not republican.

This guy is "constitution party" which is, essentially, a group of people who think the following:
A. The republican party isn't "conservative enough"
B. Why haven't we established a theocracy that forbids everything but evangelical Christianity yet?
C. B is the true meaning of the constitution.

Re:Why not Congress?

[Libertarian001]

Wow. Really? When was the last time you saw someone user the word 'libertarian' without adding some colorful adjectives to it? Let alone how Slashdot's increasingly leftist audience routinely refers to Republicans...

Re:Why not Congress?

[Nyder]

Wow. Really? When was the last time you saw someone user the word 'libertarian' without adding some colorful adjectives to it? Let alone how Slashdot's increasingly leftist audience routinely refers to Republicans...

I'm a socialist, I refer to Republicans the same as Democrats: Fucking twats that are working for the corporations.

Re:Why not Congress?

[Intron]

Please. Playing ignorant(or willfully disdainful) lip service to the constitution as if it's magical is #2 on standard politician processes, after pandering to the individual groups you are talking to today.

Besides, the Constitution is better in the original Klingon.

Re:Why not Congress?

[dkf]

Slashdot's increasingly leftist audience

Slashdot (which is overwhelmingly comprised of the comments made by its members) appears to have remained approximately static in terms of its politics, preferring to value people who can make a coherent argument backed by proper facts to favouring any particular party or political theory. If you're interpreting this as "increasingly leftist", that's probably due to your politics lurching rightwards far more rapidly than you think.

Is this just the normal drift right that usually (but not always) comes with age? Or is someone in your environment encouraging this attitudinal shift for their own ends? (If the latter, are you sure they've got your best interests at heart? Chances are not, assuming my thesis has some weight...)

Re:I wouldn't want him working for me.

[hey!]

Context is important to whether a joke is funny, or just stupid. If this were a conscientious councilman who was forced by circumstance to resign, this story would be cute. But this is an egotistical blowhard who used his position as a platform for obstructive ass-hattery (e.g., voting "no" on everything, including motions to adjourn), quitting because even he'd got tired of the stupid game. See MrEricSir's link above.

This guy was a disgrace to his office, and now he's brought disgrace on fan-dom.

Exactly

[Inzkeeper]

Just what I was thinking.
"Resign" in Klingon would have to be a polite way of saying "took a Bat'leth to the skull".
He is definitely no Klingon.

Re:I'm guessing..

[CanHasDIY]

That's hardly professional or mature for an elected official, inside joke or not.

This is a mentality I just can't get down with.

OK, so maybe resigning in Klingon wasn't the best decision he could have made; but, when you start pointing out a certain expectation for the 'professional or mature' attitude of elected officials, you're pretty much assuring that the only people who will fit the bill are the same kind of career politicians that have been fucking things up for your entire life.

Re:I'm guessing..

[dpilot]

Come on, this is Klingon - they should execute him.

Re:I'm guessing..

[CanHasDIY]

Again, I'm not saying this particular guy isn't a moron.

What I'm saying is that when you state such a lofty expectation for behavior in politicians, you pretty much ensure that the only people who will ever qualify for said positions are people who spend their lives being groomed for it. Which leads to political dynasties. Which, IMO, generally suck for the people who aren't part of the aforementioned powerful families.