Pat and others:
Don't get me wrong. I am an ardent supporter of SI. If I had my way we
would convert tomorrow, all the way. It is just that ever since I
signed on to this listserve years ago, nothing has changed much. We
post messages on small victories, which are usually very small. We send
emails and letters to organizations that seem to have no real effect.
We publish a nice newsletter. I wrote National Geographic about their
policies and was published. But in the real world, hardly anyone in the
USA knows we exist, or cares. Go into any hardware or lumber store and
you will be hard pressed to find evidence of SI anywhere, except on the
soft-converted labels. Talk to any contractor and he will not be
receptive to SI.
I have been working with a surveyor to mark out a new 10 km race course
locally. He seems unable to measure in SI. We discuss distances, and
we are in different universes. I say that we are 200 m short, and he
wants to convert it into feet. Most folks are no different.
Now, if Safeway or another major grocer, for example, decided to sell
milk in 2 L containers only, it would make a difference. Pretty soon it
would be an industry standard. If the cardboard boxes containing TV
screens were marked only in cm sizes by all the manufacturers, it would
make a difference. If major hardware chains agreed to only sell garden
hoses marked for length in even meters, the same. I am sure all readers
here could think of many other examples.
Sure, many things are hidden metric. But because they are hidden, Joe
Sixpak knows nothing about them. People will talk about a 5.7 L vehicle
engine, but they have no idea how much space in the combustion chambers
that actually is.
Sure, let us carry on, by all means. I always speak meter distances
when telling folks how far things are, and so forth. But I know that
this makes a pretty small difference. What we really need is some big
guns going for us.
HARRY WYETH
