In the 1970s the U.S. Congress and the Nixon/Ford Whitehouse proposed a plan for the metrification of the United States.  The plan for a “voluntary push” to metric, mostly implemented during the Carter Administration was a public failure.  The cartoons that were produced to hype kids and make what would become Generation X the first metric generation and the general campaign was mocked and scorned by the public who had no intention on doing anything it didn’t have to.  The public laughed at metric’s pretension’s for being a more perfect system and derided it as unamerican.  Many think that the only remnants of the metrication push today are a few road signs that show distance in kilometers and two liter bottles of soda, but that’s not the whole story.
Metrication in the United States has actually been going strong – but real quietlike – since the ’70s.  In a globalized world, private industry has more and more incentive to convert to metric in order to keep with international standards.  All branches of the U.S. military use metric for all measurements in accordance with NATO guidelines and government science agencies have also adopted metric.
So right now we’re living in a confused jumble of worlds.  We’re use metric for some things, like soda, alcohol, cocaine, and athletics but imperial standards for others like milk, deli meats and pot.  Most importantly we still use imperial standards to describe ourselves.  I am 6′4″ tall and weigh just under 190 pounds.  I live about a mile from Prospect Park.
This is where real change must occur.  If the government cannot or will not mandate a conversion to metric then it is up to right thinking citizens around the country to adopt it in our private lives and use it in conversation.  “hey how far is your Dad’s house in Suffolk?”  “oh, around 80km, depending on which way you go.” I am 194cm tall and weigh 85 kilograms. Prospect Park is about 1.5km from my house.

PROBLEM! Sounding real pretentious!
I haven’t worked out a solution to this, and yet it is totally crucial to my program.  The biggest problem with metric in the United States is that it has been successfully labeled by certain elements of society as a foreign system (even though the United States was one of the earliest official adopters) and effete and utopian.  A conservative commentator for CNN warned that we might get the metric system again if the Democrats took a senate supermajority.

If I were running a PR campaign I’d try to rebrand it as all-American.  “The troops use it, so do I.”  Get motorcyclists (motorcycles generally have metric measures) to campaign for it.  This wouldn’t be to push for government action of any kind, this would be entirely to get people using metric for their day-to-day.  Complete conversion would follow once a large number of actual Americans – no matter how small a percentage of population as total – start using it.
And then one day, one fine beatiful day I can have the following interaction…
“Number 157!??! 157???? OKAY!158?!?!”
“Oh hi, that’s me! Can I get a quarter of a kilo of the Boarshead Salsalito Turkey, half a kilo of the Applegate Farm bacon – cut thick please – and, hmm, I guess a tenth of a kilo of the Land-o-Lakes Yellow American???”
and the deli-guy will say….
“Heyyyy! Comin’ right up!!!!”