I haven't weighed in on this debate until now. I joined this list in the summer of 1999 just after retiring from regular full time employment. I may be mistaken, but I feel certain that I began to quote Article I, Section 8, Paragraph (5) soon thereafter. It most certainly didn't provoke a food fight. Of course, that subject may have been used in threads before I heard about and joined this USMA email list. I do not see how this nation, many times the population of Australia, will truly succeed in metrication without the full cooperation of the federal government. When the feds throw in, the states will have to fall in behind. But both of these levels plus local government and all industries will have to be included in a cooperative campaign. I can see that all sorts of exceptions for manufacturers may have to be in the mix. That is why there would have to be a coordinated effort with government, education, and industries all working toward the goal. Somehow we have to get industry to vocally speak of the economic necessity for switching to SI because of the costs of two methods of measure caused by thinking domestic measures need differ from those used in world trade. We have to rely upon the rest of the world resisting non-SI measures. Also education can and must teach SI without apology. I relate an instance in which our daughter, whose 5 year old will enter first grade, attended a meeting for parents and the school administators were speaking of how they taught the metric system but felt constrained to quickly add that they taught "traditional units" too. Shoot, I have a cousin in Indiana with a tool and die business whose industry would have to be part of, shall we say, a 50 year campaign. If we had begun in 1975, then we would have been half way through a possible 50 year transition toward true hard metric tools, dies etc. I know that I won't be alive to see the day that the U.S. gets to hard metric SI. That fact dismays and disgusts me. If 50 years is not enough, then what is? As Joe Reid has pointed out, Canada's route has basically been hard metric where possible and soft metric where plausible with retention of non-SI behind the scenes when absolutely economically necessary. Plus I believe that their whole campaign is frustrated by the behemoth to their south. The adoption of visible SI in the U.S. is imperative toward the goal. You ought to know how much money my state of Georgia spent, about $6 million, to recently change the Interstate highway exit signs from sequential numbers to match mile markers. I know that had Georgia spent that money because of metric requirements, it could have provided fodder for some anti-SI hollering. Unless one really has an old clunker, everyone's speedometer shows km/h. If Congress had just stick to its plan about roads, signs, and new odometers showing kilometers, that would have been a visible change that would have quickly taught SI to the public. I must admit that I wish my Nissan Altima displayed the km/h in larger numbers than it does. Naturally along with this the oil industry would have to be included and change from gallons and quarts to litters. The other visible change would be for the National Weather Service to be SI. That would quickly teach the public. I can see no plausible danger in that. I hate to bring Canadians back into the equation, but when we hear of older and even younger Canadians still thinking in non-SI, I have to believe that they are influenced by the U.S. and its holding back. So there, just as Congress had to do something in the early days, it needs to do something now. It will not work, however, unless there is coordinated effort. Have you all not always heard of the renowned Australian streak of independence. Well, if they could do it, I see no reason that the U.S. cannot. The health industry is another area ripe for visibility because it is almost completely SI. All they need to do is weigh us in kilograms, measure us in centimeters (or meters point something) and take our temperature in Celsius. Everything else is already milliliters and grams. I know some of you have spoken of reaching a "critical mass" at which the snowball will start rolling downhill instead of having to be pushed uphill. I will not be drawn into a mud throwing contest so that's all I have to say. Now I am punching the send button, Norm
