Friday, May 11

Four Ideas for a Better World


I know I've spoken of this before but I can't find the original post and it bears repeating.
The US is falling behind. Like that old man who lives next door and refuses to change; he has no use for new fangled gizmos, thank you.- we refuse to be up to date. There  are a few  things I find consistently irritating about our backwardness so I have a few suggestions to make life easier and allow us to catch up with the modern world.
Change the National Anthem -The hell with knee jerk patriotism and tradition, let's be honest  'The Star Spangled Banner"  sucks as our national anthem. It's hard to remember the lyrics, and it's hard to sing,.Unless you're a trained singer you can forget about handling the two and half octaves in a minor key.  At  the last Super Bowl game, the closet thing to a religious experience  we have in this country, they sang both the national Anthem and  "America the Beautiful" which is a far better song. Easier melody, simple poetic lyrics easy to remember. If people stubbornly refuse to change the tune then make both songs official.
The Metric System:  Only the US and England use the English standard of measurement. It's time to switch to the metric system. "It will cost too much to convert" some businesses wail. Horse shit, the loss is temporary and in the long run it will save the trouble of producing goods in both versions. Don't we want to be part of the Global community? Then go metric.
Change to the Dvorak keyboard. Look at your keyboard, it's a model of inefficiency. It was designed to slow you down, it was developed in the days when you had to worry about typing too fast and jamming keys. It's over a 100 fucking years old. So why do we still use it? Because we are used to it, the worst excuse ever. The Dvorak layout is easier and faster and you can learn it in a few weeks. Get over it.
Make English the Official Language of America. Insisting we all speak English may seem unfair to immigrants but it's not a not an evil plot to suppress minorities -it's motivation. If you live in Germany you speak German,  if you live in France, you have to speak French. If you live in Canada you have to - ok bad example but being Bilingual is a gift not a burden.With that in mind, the new law should require requires every American to learn a second language to graduate high school.
So  we up to speed with the rest of the world with weights and measurements, increased the productivity of the written word and can communicate clearly when traveling to a foreign country.Your welcome.

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