Essays / "BUt that's the way we've always done it!" Thesis and Essay [8]

It has to be 3 pages or less and that is about 2.5 pages.

Essays / "BUt that's the way we've always done it!" Thesis and Essay [8]

Thank you!

Essays / "BUt that's the way we've always done it!" Thesis and Essay [8]

"That's the way we've always done it!" Essay

I am really unhappy with this... But this is my essay. I could use some serious revising help.

Prompt: "Write an essay in which you present a situation which a change was overdue but any proposal to improve it was met with "But that's the way we've always done it!" I chose to do it on the US government's attempts to change from the US standard measurements to the metric system.

Kilometer, millimeter, meter, Kelvin, ampere: all measurements of the International System of Units (also known as metric system), used all over the world except in the United States of America. As a country we are not particularly resistant to change. We went from the horse and buggy to cars without much fuss, and we even went from only white presidents to electing a black president. The metric system, however, is something that we could simply not get used to. On December 23, 1975, US President Gerald Ford signed The Metric Conversion Act, an Act of Congress that declared the metric system "the preferred system of weights and measures for United States trade and commerce". It was at this time that the government tried to push the metric system onto the citizens of the United States of America with no success.

The United States of America, along with Burma and Liberia, is the only country on the planet whose official standard of measurement is not metric. The United States uses what we call the standard system, but is officially called "Unites States customary units", these are feet, inches, pounds, etc. Based on the Imperial system brought over from Britain, it is the system of measurement that we have always used. Some thirty years ago the government attempted to change this because the need and want to have the same system as other countries was so overwhelming. They funded a program to switch the United states customary units to the metric system by creating metric highway signs, gas pumps and thermometers. People reacted by boycotting metric products and gas stations and they wrote to their representatives in Congress to demand an end to the plan to change signs and maps to foreign units. The United States has used it's system of measurement for over two hundred years and it is not something we are willing to change despite the increasing need. It's the way we've always done things.

The United States is a closed minded, but at the same time open minded country. We are willing to change some of our ways, but most are simply unchangeable. For at least two centuries the United States has used the United States customary units of measurement while the rest of the world has used or adopted the metric system. Attempts to change our "tradition" have been met with extreme opposition and public outcry. For longer than anyone can remember we have had our system and, despite the need for change to be standard with other countries, we have still refused. It is probably the only thing we are unwilling to change because it's the way we've always done things.

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