10 Things About Being American That Do Not Make Sense

These are personal observations, not insults.

1. America was one of the first to have a simple decimal currency keeps all the other measurements in imperial units; inches, fraction of inches, miles, pints, quarts, gallons.
2. The US gallon is equivalent to 3.785 litres whereas the Canadian and British Imperial gallon is 4.546litres. There is a reason for the difference but I don't understand why the US did not come into line with everyone else. The British reviewed the Imperial system in 1824 and some items of measure were changed from the old system from the 1700's. The US used the old system and had declared independence prior to 1824 so there was no compunction to change.
3. The US cars are left hand drive. Again, there will be a good reason for this and the US is not alone. Right hand drive cars came about in the same way as riding a horse or carriage. You need the right hand to wield your sword or lance. I never saw John Wayne shoot with his left hand but then again, he never drove a car in those old Westerns.
4. The US have dropped letters from words. e.g. colour in English becomes color. This serves to disguise the original derivation of the word. Words ending in “our” in English were from the French. Or words have become more phonetic e.g. tyre in English becomes tire, centre becomes center, sulphur becomes sulfur, standardise becomes standardize. You even have the option in Windows to choose between American English or English.
   
   This is a legacy from Noah Webster who stated that establishing a national language was as important as winning the American Revolution itself. Presumably this was as much to create a differentiation between English and American English but also to simplify spelling. But then why not get rid of “c” so truck becomes truk, remove “gh” so you get tuff instead of tough. So too with “ er “ so teacher becomes teacha or go the whole hog and remove “ea” so it becomes teecha. But then again, text English is heading that way so who knows, mayb sn thngs wil b mor eezea.
5. It is a right protected by the constitution to own a gun but it is a privilege to operate a car on public roads. You must have registration and a licence.
6. The US have the World Series in baseball but they are the only country invited.
7. When you visit the USA from another country there is documentation to complete as for any country. One of the questions you have to sign off on, and remember ignorance of the law is not a plea and if you falsify this documentation you are in big doo dooze is; “ do you suffer from moral turpitude?”.
   
   In all my years of flying, I have yet to meet a person who knows what it is and yet presumably like myself, they tick the “No” box. Turpitude is for those that want to know; baseness, depravity or wickedness. I don't know, I can get pretty depraved when someone cracks open the chocolate!
8. The USA has the highest number of privately owned guns in the world, an estimated 80 million people are carrying over 200 million guns. The 10 year murder rate from 1987 to 1996 as reported by Ben Best in his work “ Death by Murder” as 8.8 murders per every 100,000 people. Canada was 2.3 for the same period, Slovenia, Switzerland, Austria and many others in the low 1's. So if you need guns for protection, one heck of a lot of people need more than guns.
9. How come the nations capital, Washington DC, which not only has the White House, the International headquarters for the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank, the Organisation of American States as well as many other national offices for unions and arts societies and the like based there, and is the home of the Smithsonian Institute, has the highest murder rate of any city in the US? Do that many crooks live there? In the late 1990's the rate was a staggering 69.3 murders per 100,000 people. Admittedly this had dropped to 45.8 in 2002 but still? Go figure. I thought it would have been one of the safest cities with so many body guards and secret service about.
10. The US has the second largest percentage of its population attending church each week at 40%. The top nation is Ireland at 60%. According to the Centre for Global Development that looked at how developed countries support developing countries, Ireland was ranked 19th out of 19 and the US came in at 12th.

In incarceration rates, the rates of locking people up in prison, the US leads the world at 702 people per 100,000 persons. As a comparison Canada is 116, England 139, France 85. The US sends more people to prison than other developed countries at between 5 to 8 times the rates of the others. “ Love thy neighbour as thyself” does not seem to stick.

The sixth commandment states, “ Thou shall not kill” and yet in 2006 there were still 53 executions carried out. The irony is that the US wants to and claims to lead the World, but yet it leads at too many things that perhaps it would be wise not to.

The USA is a great nation, a rich and diverse country make no bones about it, but it also has some aspects that to outsiders can seem incongruous.