Excellent letter, Paul. I would have left the political stuff out of it, not just because my view of George Bush is very different from yours, but because it's not really relevant.
That doesn't detract from the excellence, though. Bill Potts, CMS Roseville, CA http://metric1.org [SI Navigator] >-----Original Message----- >From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] >Behalf Of Paul Trusten, R.Ph. >Sent: Saturday, June 14, 2003 14:42 >To: U.S. Metric Association >Subject: [USMA:26081] In for a penny, in for a ... kilogram--your recent >column > > >Dear Mr. Lewis, > >I read with great interest your online column "In for a penny, in for >a...kilogram" (May 29, 2003), and have spent the interim preparing my >response. Since my parents did not raise me to speak and write >vulgar slang, >I waited two weeks so I could calm down before writing this. > >Your article asks why the United States, after 28 years of considering >conversion to the metric system, is still "pounding and inching along". One >of the primary reasons for this, I believe, is because people such as >yourself have newspaper columns, and singlehandedly, are in a position to >publish opinions and information as prejudiced, as narrow, and as fractured >as the material you put into the above-mentioned column. The prevalence of >such dim views of a subject make me yearn to have a newspaper column of my >own so that I could at least back up my widely disseminated opinions with >facts. Does your paper have an opening for a new writer? > >I start by saying that I am an American, native born and lifelong, who is >proud of the United States and what it has done for its people and for the >people of the world. I wholeheartedly support President Bush in his effort >to protect the United States from terrorism. And accordingly, I condemn the >French for their barbed opposition to our efforts to eliminate a great >threat from Iraq. But there is one thing that I will always thank >the French >for, and that is their invention of the metric system. > > >You say that the metric system is "boring and sterile", and "suitable only >for mathematicians and other colorless folk". I've never before heard >someone compare units of measurement for their entertainment >value, and I do >not measure things to be entertained. I measure things to accomplish some >task, such as framing pictures, cutting paper, or judging how much space I >need for a carpet. Sometimes I need to expand these measurements >into larger >units or reduce them to smaller units. The American plan of measurement, >using 12 inches to a foot, etc., is so cumbersome and so silly >compared to a >decimal system that I would equate it to being sterile of thought. >I long to >use a measurement system in which all the units are decimally >related. That, >this inch-weary American feels, would be a most exciting and fertile change >in our society. I yearn for what you call, almost with approval, "the >all-too-even 10". No, the "Way Of Measuring Badly in America >Today" (I use >the acronym WOMBAT to describe our "system" of measurement, which is >unsystematic) is not, as you say, "just fine". It is bad for the >individual >user, and, as you shall shortly read, bad for America. > >You were partially correct when you observed that the United States is one >of only three nations not officially using the metric system. However, the >Congress declared in 1988 that the metric system is the "preferred >system of >measurement for trade" in the United States. Congress has long known what >the American people have been reluctant to recognize: that being alone in >the world with our measurements is a major hindrance to our global >competitiveness as a people, both in academics and in trade. American >producers must produce one set of goods with US units for domestic sale and >one set of goods with metric units for export, and this has to be a major >incumbrance to our economy. So, I must disagree with your >statement that our >metrological kinship with Liberia and Myanmar is "a good thing". I think it >is a very bad thing, since much of the world looks to the United States for >wisdom, not backwardness. > >Of all the provocative statements you made in your column, the one notion >which irks me above all the others is your using that >ignorance-perpetuating >old ruse about metric units, making hard conversions of US units to metric >and using them in a statement to show how supposedly cumbersome metric is, >e.g., that Newville was 17.7028 kilometers from Carlisle. Please tell your >readers that, in a metric America, one will say that Newville is about 18 >kilometers from Carlisle, period. Once the US converts to metric, there >will be no more frequent converting. There will only be metric units being >used. Please stop spreading that kind of prejudicial venom, which I believe >is a hindrance, not just to metric conversion, but to much of human >progress. > >You may know that the United States was the first nation to introduce >decimal currency. Would you like to return to the "human touch" of the old >British system of (this may not be right) 20 pence to the shilling and 12 >shillings to the pound, the system discarded by the British in >1971 in favor >of our own decimal system? > >I'm not a mathematician, but I would not describe mathematicians as >colorless folk. On the contrary, I sense that their craft brought >much color >into the world, including the color pictures of all types we now see from >around the world on our web browsers. These people are actually >the color of >the world, and a few of them, a couple of hundred years ago in France, gave >the world an easy and convenient way of measuring things. Both as a >patriotic American, and as someone who just has to measure stuff from time >to time, I want to join that world. But I can't join it if American >columnists like you persist in attempting to rob America of the measurement >system it deserves. > >Please reconsider what you have written. > > >Sincerely, > > >Paul Trusten >3609 Caldera Boulevard, Apartment 122 >Midland TX 79707-2872 USA >432-694-6208 >[EMAIL PROTECTED] > >"There are two cardinal sins, from >which all the others spring: impatience >and laziness." > ---Franz Kafka
