Michael-O wrote: > Well said! > > as for myself, after 6 month of the Euro I have completely forgotten > the DEM and can not compare prices in the old currency! > > more than 300 million people took a new currency, many regret but > most will see in 5 to 10 years that this currency is one of the best > things ever happened to Europe and I truly believe that in 30 to 50 > years we will have the USE - United States of Europe and above that > most currencies in the world will vanish! > > I never doubted Americans being stupid or whatsoever, I truly admire > and love this nation. I know everyone makes mistakes and is afraid of > the future but if I recap all the centuries Americans struggled for > the right idea and life and *don't* doubt on the decision how to > ensure and increase people's prosperty and wealth! > > I support Mr. Bush 101 %! > > bye > > > Paul Trusten, R.Ph. wrote: >> Dear Mr. Lewis, >> >> I read with great interest your online column "In for a penny, in for >> a...kilogram" (May 29, 2003), and have spent the interim preparing my >> response. Since my parents did not raise me to speak and write vulgar >> slang, I waited two weeks so I could calm down before writing this. >> >> Your article asks why the United States, after 28 years of >> considering conversion to the metric system, is still "pounding and >> inching >> along". One of the primary reasons for this, I believe, is because >> people such as yourself have newspaper columns, and singlehandedly, >> are in a position to publish opinions and information as prejudiced, >> as narrow, and as fractured as the material you put into the >> above-mentioned column. The prevalence of such dim views of a subject >> make me yearn to have a newspaper column of my own so that I could at >> least back up my widely disseminated opinions with facts. Does your >> paper have an opening for a new writer? >> >> I start by saying that I am an American, native born and lifelong, >> who is proud of the United States and what it has done for its people >> and for the people of the world. I wholeheartedly support President >> Bush in his effort to protect the United States from terrorism. And >> accordingly, I condemn the French for their barbed opposition to our >> efforts to eliminate a great threat from Iraq. But there is one thing >> that I will always thank the French for, and that is their invention >> of the metric system. >> >> >> You say that the metric system is "boring and sterile", and "suitable >> only for mathematicians and other colorless folk". I've never before >> heard someone compare units of measurement for their entertainment >> value, and I do not measure things to be entertained. I measure >> things to accomplish some task, such as framing pictures, cutting >> paper, or judging how much space I need for a carpet. Sometimes I >> need to expand these measurements into larger units or reduce them to >> smaller units. The American plan of measurement, using 12 inches to a >> foot, etc., is so cumbersome and so silly compared to a decimal >> system that I would equate it to being sterile of thought. I long to >> use a measurement system in which all the units are decimally >> related. That, this inch-weary American feels, would be a most >> exciting and fertile change in our society. I yearn for what you >> call, almost with approval, "the all-too-even 10". No, the "Way Of >> Measuring Badly in America Today" (I use the acronym WOMBAT to >> describe our "system" of measurement, which is unsystematic) is not, >> as you say, "just fine". It is bad for the individual user, and, as >> you shall shortly read, bad for America. >> >> You were partially correct when you observed that the United States >> is one of only three nations not officially using the metric system. >> However, the Congress declared in 1988 that the metric system is the >> "preferred system of measurement for trade" in the United States. >> Congress has long known what the American people have been reluctant >> to recognize: that being alone in the world with our measurements is >> a major hindrance to our global competitiveness as a people, both in >> academics and in trade. American producers must produce one set of >> goods with US units for domestic sale and one set of goods with >> metric units for export, and this has to be a major incumbrance to >> our economy. So, I must disagree with your statement that our >> metrological kinship with Liberia and Myanmar is "a good thing". I >> think it is a very bad thing, since much of the world looks to the >> United States for wisdom, not backwardness. >> >> Of all the provocative statements you made in your column, the one >> notion which irks me above all the others is your using that >> ignorance-perpetuating old ruse about metric units, making hard >> conversions of US units to metric and using them in a statement to >> show how supposedly cumbersome metric is, e.g., that Newville was >> 17.7028 kilometers from Carlisle. Please tell your readers that, in a >> metric America, one will say that Newville is about 18 kilometers >> from Carlisle, period. Once the US converts to metric, there will be >> no more frequent converting. There will only be metric units being >> used. Please stop spreading that kind of prejudicial venom, which I >> believe is a hindrance, not just to metric conversion, but to much of >> human progress. >> >> You may know that the United States was the first nation to introduce >> decimal currency. Would you like to return to the "human touch" of >> the old British system of (this may not be right) 20 pence to the >> shilling and 12 shillings to the pound, the system discarded by the >> British in 1971 in favor of our own decimal system? >> >> I'm not a mathematician, but I would not describe mathematicians as >> colorless folk. On the contrary, I sense that their craft brought >> much color into the world, including the color pictures of all types >> we now see from around the world on our web browsers. These people >> are actually the color of the world, and a few of them, a couple of >> hundred years ago in France, gave the world an easy and convenient >> way of measuring things. Both as a patriotic American, and as someone >> who just has to measure stuff from time to time, I want to join that >> world. But I can't join it if American columnists like you persist in >> attempting to rob America of the measurement system it deserves. >> >> Please reconsider what you have written. >> >> >> Sincerely, >> >> >> Paul Trusten >> 3609 Caldera Boulevard, Apartment 122 >> Midland TX 79707-2872 USA >> 432-694-6208 >> [EMAIL PROTECTED] >> >> "There are two cardinal sins, from >> which all the others spring: impatience >> and laziness." >> ---Franz Kafka
