From an outsider, if I may:
There is little hope that Chafee will get anywhere in his bid for US
President. BUT, he might well get some sort of position in a Clinton
administration, should she be successful. It seems to me that Chafee could
lay a lot of groundwork right now with Clinton regarding completing metric
conversion.
Just my two cents' worth.
John F-L
-----Original Message-----
From: [email protected]
Sent: Thursday, June 04, 2015 7:45 PM
To: U.S. Metric Association
Subject: [USMA:54727] An Opportunity for the USMA (or Chafee Could Do a Lot
of Harm)
Paul (Trusten) -- A good response as always, Paul. The advantage of
Chaffee's statement is that it has drawn attention to the metric question
once again. BUT -- and it is a big BUT:
Chafee did an absolutely lousy job in rolling out his policy. He claimed
(briefly) that metrication would be a boost to international commerce, but
he didn't give any argument for why that would be the case. He could have
talked about figures from the U.S. Metric Study (updated), he could have
talked about improving STEM education to get our students jobs, he could
have talked to the benefit to U.S. workers not having to buy two sets of
tools, he could talked about greater markets for U.S. goods. BUT -- he
didn't.
Moreover, I would have hoped that he would mention that the U.S. is
already half metric and is paying a high price for not pushing the
conversion to completion, but remaining in limbo. He could have educated
people (briefly) about the fact that they are already metric in medicine,
pharmaceuticals, alcohol, lighting, electricity, automotive, and many
other areas. American still remain ignorant of this fact. BUT -- he
didn't.
As a result, the press simply dredged up the old jokes against metric
instead of discussing the issue as an economic and educational one. I
noted that one of the hosts on Fox News said that Chafee was "thousands of
meters behind" in getting votes. It is of interest that Fox News, the
leading cable news company, is using meters more and more in its
broadcasts.
It's going to be an uphill battle, but if we are to avoid metric being the
butt of jokes instead of the way to the future economy, I strongly urge
that you, Paul, or Dan, or someone of like metric knowledge and
credentials, make a real effort to get through to Chafee, educate him on
metric, and help him develop "talking points" for his speeches so that he
won't sound like the -- sorry -- fool that he came across on television
yesterday.
If Chafee continues to play the fool, the result will be that candidates
back off any recommendation toward metric. And you know that every one of
the candidates in both parties will be asked the question -- if they
haven't been already. USMA needs to move fast.
My recommendation would be to downplay the metric law and emphasize jobs
and commerce. The U.S. needs a lot of education about this, but if we can
get the message across that "Metric Means Jobs and Money" (how's that for
a motto!), we might be able to move the debate to our side.
Martin Morrison
"USMA Today" Training & Education Columnist
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