What was scary, Paul, was that several of the same arguments made by Mr. Krakel on that archive clip were the same ones being made by my co-worker.
On Tuesday, June 12, 2007, at 09:23AM, "Paul Trusten" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: >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] > > >
