Jay Evensen
  • Front Page
  • Opinions
  • Second Thoughts
  • Portfolio
  • Awards
  • About

Unfortunately, the time change isn't going away soon

3/11/2021

0 Comments

 
Here’s an idea: Instead of forcing everyone to lose an hour of sleep by changing the time at 2 a.m. on Sunday, make the change happen at 4 p.m. on Friday.
Then, presto! It’s suddenly 5 p.m. and time to start the weekend.
If we’re going to keep this twice-yearly fiasco going, let’s at least make it a little fun. As it is, the internet age won’t even let us use the excuse that we forgot to set the clock back. We wander blurry eyed to work on Monday and spend two or three days in a funk.
It’s almost as agonizing as watching legislative gears to churn through something that ought to be a no-brainer.
Yes, Sen. Marco Rubio’s annual bill, which would put the entire nation on Daylight Saving Time permanently, now has a bunch of bipartisan co-sponsors. That’s a good sign. After all, this isn’t one of those gridlock issues like immigration reform or health care.
Utah Rep. Chris Stewart has a similar bill in the House.
And yes, 16 states, including Utah, have passed laws that say they will switch to permanent Daylight Saving as soon as Congress makes it legal to do so. 
But when your clocks change this Sunday and you lose an hour of precious sleep, you will have little reason to believe you’re any closer to doing so for the last time. 
This is the “honey-do” list of public policy decisions. Like that squeaky door hinge or stuck window latch, we never seem to get around to fixing it.
Just look at the European Union. People there thought they had the problem licked. A couple of years ago, the European Parliament passed a law requiring every member nation to decide whether to keep Daylight Saving or Standard time. Then, the final time change was to be on March 28, 2021. End of story.
But then the pandemic happened. Members of the European Council, comprising heads of state, never got around to ratifying the law. Instead, they passed it onto the EU’s executive branch and asked for a study of potential impacts, and the executive European Commission passed it right back. As London writer Feargus O'Sullivan reported for Bloomberg.com, Brexit hasn’t helped, either, because the UK has no plans to give up the time change.
If the EU changed, it might have put pressure on the United States, but no.  
I could list all the real, honest-to-goodness reasons why we ought to stop monkeying with the clocks. Sen. Rubio did so in the press release hyping his bill. He cited research showing that the time change leads to increases in car accidents, including those involving pedestrians. It increases health problems such as heart attacks and strokes. It reduces economic activity, as workers suffer from a lack of sleep. 
Polls show most people want to stop it. A couple of years ago, an AP-NORC poll showed about 70% of Americans wanted to stop changing, but they were almost equally divided as to whether to keep Standard or Daylight Saving Time.
But we’ve heard all this before. 
The real problem is that by next Wednesday you will have forgotten all about this … until November, when a 2 a.m. time change actually lets you sleep an hour longer. And who could complain about that?
0 Comments

Your comment will be posted after it is approved.


Leave a Reply.

    RSS Feed

    Search this site


    Like what you read here?

      Please subscribe below, and we'll let you know when there is a new opinion.

    Enter your email address:

    Delivered by FeedBurner

    Picture

    The author

    Jay Evensen is the Senior Editorial Columnist of the Deseret News. He has nearly 40 years experience as a reporter, editor and editorial writer in Oklahoma, New York City, Las Vegas and Salt Lake City. He also has been an adjunct journalism professor at Brigham Young and Weber State universities.

    Archives

    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013
    August 2013
    July 2013
    June 2013
    May 2013
    April 2013
    March 2013
    February 2013
    January 2013
    December 2012
    November 2012
    October 2012
    September 2012
    August 2012
    July 2012
    June 2012

    Categories

    All
    Campaign 2012
    Congress
    Crime
    Culture
    Iran
    Oil And Gas
    Poverty
    Steroids
    Taxes
    Utah
    Washington
    World Events
    World Events

    Links

    Deseret News
    Newslink
    Marianne Evensen's blog

Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.