Only Congress can stop this dark madness
Nov. 7—As we start our winter of dark discontent today, let us hope this is one of the last years we have to switch to Standard Time and watch gloomily as the sun sets before people even leave work for the day.
There is more hope we will be able to permanently put Standard Time to bed.
In case you missed it, the media have been reminding us repeatedly, for about a week now, to remember to set our clocks back one hour early this morning.
There are also all sorts of stories that provide oh-so-helpful advice on how to cope with changing your clock an hour: exercise, don't drink coffee or alcohol at night, maintain your normal bedtime, yada yada yada.
There really aren't that many clocks to set back anymore. Phones, computers and any smart appliance or vehicle automatically switches the time back and forth in the spring and fall.
I still have several clocks to set back manually as we have dumb appliances, dumb vehicles and a battery-powered wall clock that needs to be set back 4 minutes every week because it runs fast.
Thankfully we don't have VCRs anymore so no one has to try to figure out how to change the time on them. Setting VCR clocks shouldn't have been that tough, but across the country people looked through their VCR manuals, punched button after button, and then just settled for having their VCR flash 4 a.m. when it was really 2 p.m.
The majority of Americans want to stop changing the clocks twice a year, moving in and out of Daylight Saving Time. A majority of states have now introduced legislation asking Congress to do away with the time changes, with most favoring leaving Daylight Savings Time reign all year.
Congress has over the decades steadily moved to shrink the portion of the year on Standard Time. The year used to be split evenly in half, but now Standard Time is a smaller slice of the year. Daylight Savings Time — and getting more daylight later into the evenings — lasts eight months.
It's a bit of a mystery why Congress hasn't managed to pass legislation, other than maybe someone in one party said it was a good idea so a bunch of people in the other party reflexively decided it must be a bad idea.
Keeping Daylight Saving all the time is known to reduce crime rates and vehicle accidents and is better for people's overall health.
Business groups are also all for permanently allowing for more daylight in the evening. The Chamber of Commerce knows that if you give people more daylight after they get off work, they are going to do more shopping, eating out and spending money at businesses.
Maybe this will be the year that members of Congress come together and do something sensible — put an end to the Four Months of Darkness we're facing today.
Tim Krohn can be contacted at tkrohn@mankatofreepress.com or 507-344-6383.
