NC Councilman Resigns From Term In Klingon

When David Waddell, a city councilman from Indian Trail, North Carolina, resigned from his position on Thursday, he had to include a translation for his parting words, "chaq DaHjaj QaQ jaj paj.” In plain English: “Perhaps today is a good day (to) resign” in Klingon the fictional language made famous in the "Star Trek" TV and film series.

According to the Charlotte Observer, Waddell delivered his Klingon resignation letter to Mayor Michael Alvarez on Thursday. On the off chance that Alvarez didn’t have the entire fictional language memorized, Waddell also attached a translation of his statement, courtesy of Bing’s new Klingon translator.

Waddell really went the extra mile with his resignation letter, too. Not content to copy an English transliteration, Waddell used the elaborate script written and read on the Klingon home planet Qo’noS. He even paraphrased a popular Klingon saying, “Perhaps today is a good day to die,” repeatedly uttered by Lieutenant Worf in “Star Trek: The Next Generation.”

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

Waddell may have been amused by his letter, but his boss, Mayor Alvarez, was not (or perhaps he just never forgave the Klingons for destroying the Enterprise in “Star Trek III: The Search for Spock”).

“It’s an embarrassment for Indian Trail, and it’s an embarrassment for North Carolina,” Alvarez told the Observer.

Waddell, the only elected member of North Carolina’s right-wing Constitution Party, said he resigned partly to launch his write-in campaign for the United States Senate, challenging incumbent Kay Hagan. Had he not resigned, Waddell’s term would have ended in December 2015.