by Rich Smith
I think the citizens of
Arizona have their heads screwed on the right
way, for they are the only State that ignores the inane Federal Daylight
Savings Time mandate.
Messing around
with our clocks twice a year is absolutely insane, with no demonstrated advantage.
How many folks ever question the absurdity of
the “spring forward
fall back”
mantra?
Does anyone ever ask, “What is
the purpose behind this biannual irritation?”
Some say it saves electric power, but how can moving our clocks one hour
forward or back save electricity?
The
sun still rises and sets by sidereal time, and it is the absence of sunlight
that encourages us to turn lights on.
The sun cannot be governed by Federal mandates and I have never seen a scientific
study that supports the theory that messing with our clocks saves power.
I certainly couldn’t prove this by examining my
Idaho Power bill.
Changing clocks messes
with my head and forces me to spend valuable time looking for all the clocks
though out the house and when finding them remembering how to reset each. Changing clocks to conform to some federal
mandate also confuses our domesticated animals. Moving my time habits twice each year bewilders
my dog Molly. “Hey Dad, what is wrong
with you? You are normally a reliable
person, but it is way past my dinnertime or cookie time, and why haven’t we had
our walk yet?” Dogs are creatures of
habit and smarter than most humans when it comes to messing with Mother
Nature. If given a vote in the matter, not
one animal would opt to change clocks twice each year.
Not satisfied with only imposing Daylight Savings Time, our
government also messes with clocks across the country.
Back in the nineteenth century when
railroads spread their rails across the nation, they lobbied Congress to create
four time zones so they could coordinate their timetables with the east to west
march of the sun across the continent.
This made sense for the railroads and for the makers of pocket watches,
but only contributed to passenger confusion.
“What time zone are we in now,” was a question cnductors had to answer
multiple times.
And why is it that when
I travel north in
Idaho and go through the
town of
Riggens,
suddenly I lose an hour.
There were no
train tracks between
Boise and
Lewiston one-hundred and twenty years ago.
Did the nineteenth century time zone
tsars flunk fifth grade geography and actually think the sun traversed
Idaho from
south to north?
Perhaps Congress at the
time just assumed Idaho needed both northern and southern time zones to support
the idea the panhandle should be part of Washington State.
For whatever reason, we are stuck with this
stupid and partisan decision that no longer makes sense in the twenty-first
century.
I feel sorry for the folks who
live along the
Salmon River north of
Riggens.
School starts at 8:15am in
Riggens, unless of course if you live across the Middlefork; in that case
school starts at 7:15, unless only yesterday Idaho fell back to Standard Time.
Did you realize that last year the traditional fall and spring
dates for transitioning to and from Standard Time changed?
It seems Standard Time is now less Standard
than it formerly was.
So, join my cause.
Forget
all this political wangling about inane issues such as who will be our
next President or State Representative or which party will wield power.
Congress and State Assemblies should address
something of substance, something that affects my daily life.
Stop messing around with our clocks.
For this Molly and I would be most grateful.
