When I was in fifth grade, my teacher told us about this really big change that was coming that was going to totally transform our lives. She explained that our country had bravely decided to convert to a new system based on reason and efficiency, a system used by scientists and inventors. The system was called "metric" and we had to hurry up and learn it because in the future, in 1992, the conversion would be complete: in the 1990’s we would buy gas in liters, cloth by the meter, and land by the hectare. We kids were pretty excited about this new, modern system where you just moved the decimal point instead of figuring fluid ounces, pounds, pecks, rods, and furlongs.
By the time the 90’s came, I had forgotten all about the glorious metric society that we were preparing for back in 5th grade, until, one day, a Mars probe blew up because it was designed with half metric and half English measurements. And I thought about how embarrassing that must have been for NASA because – well – because the Mars orbiter cost $125 million.
I’m told that today, Burma, Liberia, and… the United States are the only countries that still don’t use the metric or "International System of Units", and it just makes me wish we’d finished the work my classmates and I started back in 5th grade. But I hear that NASA’s brand-new lunar program is going to be 100% metric, so maybe we’ll get there someday, maybe our country will finally join the community of nations.
And maybe, while we’re at it, just maybe we’ll ratify the Kyoto Accord on climate change and go back to respecting the Geneva Conventions too.