Ladies and Gentlemen ([EMAIL PROTECTED]): I have just learned that you are considering the return of Imperial measures to Saskatchewan's classrooms. I am an American citizen and I plead with you not to do so. My wife and I vacation in Canada so that we can have our metric "fix". I know that we buy packaged goods in the United States which show milliliters/liters in addition to fluid ounces/pints/quarts/gallons or which show grams/kilograms in addition to ounces/pounds. However, we don't really feel like we are in a metric country until we see your highway signs in kilometers and your temperatures in Celsius. Anything that you do to prolong the inevitable change to the International System of units (SI-metric) will be detrimental to your independence from the American behemoth. Fight with all of your might against the American/Imperial antiquated method of measures. Remember that all of the other English speaking countries have adopted SI-metric or have finally reached the final stages of doing so. Yes, that includes Great Britain too! Surely you don't believe that the typical American understands the relationship of cubic inches to a gallon, of square feet to an acre, of feet to a mile or of any of that antiquated stuff! Nobody can remember it even if someone wastes a lot of time trying to teach it. Why would anyone want to use fractions, such as with inches, when the decimalized use of millimeters or centimeters is available and your children are learning the latter. I and many other Americans have been so proud of Canadians for the strides you have made into the 21st century. Those of us in this category are equally ashamed of the level of resistance to SI-metric found in the United States. NAFTA does not and must not mean acceptance of the obsolete so-called U.S. Customary units, which I refer to as WOMBAT (Way Of Measuring Badly in America Today) or sometimes the King George III Colonial units. There really is no Imperial anymore since the U.K. and Ireland are moving away from it. For heavens sake, don't regress and move back toward it after you have made so much progress. Sincerely, Norman V. Werling 1240 Hunters Drive Stone Mountain, Georgia 30083 USA
