Copy for USMA list members.
Norm
----- Original Message -----
From: "Norman Werling" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: "Representative Cynthia McKinney" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>; "Senator Max
Cleland" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Sent: 2001May12 13:41
Subject: International System of Units (SI, metric)
> Dear Senator Max Cleland, Senator Zell Miller and Congresswoman Cynthia
> McKinney,
>
> I will be mailing you each a copy of this email which is being processed
> through my Outlook Express system. I repeat my dismay that you all refuse
> to reply to emails which are not sent to your web sites or which have not
> been sent via US mail. Any automatic acknowledgments do not count if your
> or your staffs' reply is not addressed to the subject matter.
>
> Obviously you can tell that I am an advocate of the United States fully
> utilizing the International System of Units (SI-metric). The present
> hodgepodge of archaic units referred to as US Customary or US Standard
> is_not_the equal or a valid substitute for SI. I prefer to call US
> Customary WOMBAT (Way Of Measuring Badly in America Today).
>
> I repeat myself when I say it is amusing or even laughable that Congress
> yielded to highway contractors' pressure to revert to "English" units when
> the British are changing to SI-metric. The British must do so if they
want
> to be part of the European Union. I admit that there is reactionary
> (conservative) led backlash against SI-metric and even Britain's
membership
> in the EU, but the tide is for SI-metric and for the EU and against the
> reactionary backlash.
>
> Remember, SI-metric is not just Europe, it is Japan and all of Asia, it is
> all of Africa, it is Latin America, it is the rest of the English speaking
> world, it is the entire world outside of the US.
>
> India, South Africa, Australia, New Zealand and Jamaica are all nations of
> British heritage who have completed or are nearly complete in converting
to
> SI-metric.
>
> I feel that it is US government and industrial interests which are
impeding
> Canada's completion of their conversion to SI-metric.
>
> Certainly all three of you know that the entire world has been replacing
> their individual archaic measurement units with SI-metric. Not all
nations
> used to use the British Imperial units. The U.S. (so-called) Customary
> differed in volume from the British Imperial. Many other nations changed
> from their own non-metric systems which may have been similar to the
British
> Imperial but were not the same.
>
> Look back in time when everyone in the world used "sun" time before the
> advent of Standard Time. Do you not see the similarities?
>
> Are you not thankful that the US Congress adopted decimal currency in the
> late 1700's? Britain did not dump 4 farthings to a pence, 12 pence to a
> shilling, and 20 shillings to a pound sterling until 1971. The same kind
of
> people in Britain who opposed that action are the kinds who oppose using
> SI-metric now.
>
> You all may think that there is American opposition to switching to
> SI-metric, but I believe that there is more apathy than opposition among
> Americans. My 45 year old daughter, when confronted by my Celsius
> thermometer on my back fence said, "I am ready to change but we (meaning
> Americans) all need to change at the same time and just have it over
with."
>
> Congress often must take the lead when something is worthwhile and
> necessary. Look at legislation concerning civil rights, industrial
safety,
> and the environment and you must agree that voluntary approaches have
> serious flaws. If my company wants to do the "right thing", but other
> companies are not required to do the "right thing", my company is placed
at
> a competitive disadvantage.
>
> There is an American business organization called TABD, which stands for
> TransAtlantic Business Dialogue. That group succeeded in pressuring the
> European Union into a ten-year extension to 2009 before the EU will
require
> only SI-metric measures to the exclusion of Imperial or WOMBAT, the
> so-called US Customary. I do not trust TABD because they promised to take
> steps in the next ten years toward bringing the US into compliance with
SI,
> but they and their kind promised the same thing in 1979 and 1989.
>
> Now we are confronted with the possibility of an expanded western
hemisphere
> trading zone. I would be totally dismayed, disappointed, and downright
> angry if American companies were to overwhelm all of the other nations of
> our hemisphere with America's antiquated non-decimal measures to the
> exclusion of the modern already adopted SI metric measures. I emphasize
> right here and now that applying decimals to the use of inches, feet,
yards,
> miles, ounces, pounds, fluid ounces, pints, quarts, and gallons is_not_
a
> solution. At some point you must still convert with factors of 12, 3,
5280,
> 16,16, 8, 2, or 4 in order to relate one or the other to the other.
>
> With SI-metric, for distance move the decimal point to convert from
> kilometer to hectometer to decameter to meter to decimeter to centimeter
to
> millimeter. For volume, move the decimal point to convert from kiloliter
> to hectoliter to dekaliter to liter to deciliter to centiliter to
> milliliter. For mass (weight), move the decimal point to convert from
> kilogram to hectogram to decagram to gram to decigram to centigram to
> milligram.
>
> I was age 39 in 1975 when Congress passed the Metric Conversion Act. I
> decided to give SI-metric a chance and readily found that it is mush
easier
> and looked foreword to the US joining the rest of the world. Congress
took
> a few steps forward but then has taken many more serious steps back.
>
> Also do not forget that the inch, the foot, the yard, and the statute mile
> all owe the definition of their very existence to their relationship to
the
> meter. Let's just use the meter!
>
> I cannot see how it is in the best long term interests of the US to not
join
> with the rest of the world in fully using SI. Do you think that American
> business should have the power to force other nations, large or small, to
be
> inundated with archaic WOMBAT (Way Of Measuring Badly in America Today)
> units when their laws all provide for goods measured in the International
> System of Units (SI)? We keep saying through government and business that
> we will change to SI, but our actions belie our words.
>
> Looking forward to your replies via email and/or US mail,
>
> Norman V. Werling
> 1240 Hunters Drive
> Stone Mountain, GA 30083-2545
> 404-292-9328
>
>
>
