Dear Mr. Atwill, For some reason, I am unable to register on to your site to post a response to the article by Adlen Robinson on the metric system. Please post the following for me, or please accept it as my submission as a "letter to the editor."
SIncerely, Paul R. Trusten Registered Pharmacist Vice President and Public Relations Director U.S. Metric Association, Inc. www.metric.org [email protected] +1(432)528-7724 Dear Ms. Robinson, Thank you for raising the subject of U.S. changeover to the metric system ("Whatever Happened To The Metric System." 20 May 2011, http://www.forsythnews.com/section/72/article/8721/). Your statement about the U.S. "phasing out the number system" does not at all describe the process in question. In a metric America, numbers will remain just as they are, which for most people, is under tje decimal system. On the contrary, it is we, the American people, who may be thought of as "changing the number system" relative to almost all other countries in the world. Our ancient and unwieldy measurement units are an interference with the usual arithmetic most people use in the U.S., and it also interferes with global trade and with academic progress for our students. By perpetuating the myth that the metric system is hard "because of conversions," you fail to inform the public that changing over to the metric system means just that--changing over to metric as the sole national standard of measurement, and ceasing to use the old system. Under the metric system only (that is, after the country has finished changing over to the new standard), there will be no day-to-day calculations from one system to the other. Distances will be written and spoken in kilometers only, Mass (weight) will be weighed in milligrams, grams, or kilograms only, and liquids will be measured in milliliters, liters, or cubic meters only. Units relate to each other decimally, just like our decimal dollars and cents. However, I agree with you wholeheartedly that government alone cannot change our country to metric. The process must be fully backed by every possible institution, public or private. It would be a compact between the American people and all of its institutions. Our 1970s-era attempt to go metric hardly approached this level of commitment to the change. It is only with such a change that people will ask for a 30-centimeter hot dog. Me, I love hot dogs, and I would ask for one half a meter (50 cm)! As a practicing pharmacist for the last 35 years, I can also observe that using the metric system exclusively in our society will virtually eliminate certain harmful or fatal medication errors. A small number of people have suffered and died because of the existence of two measurement standards in our country! We at the U.S. Metric Association have supported that broad commitment to metric in America since 1916, and we shall continue to do so. For more information, please visit our Web site at www.metric.org. Paul R. Trusten Registered Pharmacist Vice President and Public Relations Director U.S. Metric Association, Inc. www.metric.org [email protected] +1(432)528-7724
