Thanks, Scott. Yipes!! I listened to it, and I'm just glad that it was
30 years ago.
I suppose I can best respond to these persistent distorted attitudes
toward metric by applying reason. It was reason that brought me into
working for this national goal in the first place. Establishing a
standard of measurement is a technical matter, not a political
manifesto. Nobody in my pharmacy classroom made reference to politics in
1974. In fact, nobody said a word. I became a champion of U.S.
metrication on my own, in a quiet moment of study, far away from the
madding crowd of social change. The following year, I did it into a
political issue of sorts, as a concerned citizen--I spoke briefly to a
pharmaceutics class at my school about my wish that they support passage
of the Metric Conversion Act of 1975, which was being debated in
Congress at the time.
I guess I would agree with Mr. Krakel that, prior to 1866, America was
built on the inch, yard, etc., because Americans did not yet have the
legal right to use metric units. That right was established by the
constitutionally authorized body, the U.S. Congress, in 1866. As a
pharmacist, I would tell him that the metric system was essential to his
health. Use inch-pound across the board in medicine, and people might be
more likely to be injured, or even killed. That is not a scare-tactic
statement, either.
I would tell Mr. Krakel that America was also built on a decimal dollar.
Metrication supporters want to extend the decimal advantage to U.S.
measurement. I expect the successful completion of metrication to
augment, and not undermine, life in these United States, for generations
to come.
Metrication is often made political, but I oppose any attempt to apply
extreme political spins to it. I agree with Mr. Krakel that
measurement is an everyday thing, and, as such, it applies to everyone,
regardless of political philosophy
Scott Hudnall wrote:
I was talking with a co-worker the other day, and was appalled to
learn he thought metrication was a communist plot. I had heard this
once as a school boy back in the 1970's , but thought it was a joke.
I did some searching on the Internet and found this clip from 1977 in
the CBC archives.
http://archives.cbc.ca/IDC-1-75-1572-10614/science_technology/
metric_system/clip5
The clip is 30 years old, and communism is all but dead - so what can
we do to change these attitudes?
Scott
--
Paul Trusten, R.Ph.
Public Relations Director
U.S. Metric Association, Inc.
www.metric.org
3609 Caldera Blvd., Apt. 122
Midland TX 79707-2872 USA
+1(432)528-7724
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
