Change The Clock? Save the Hour! Join the Daylight Saving Time Liberation Front

Confused by Daylight Saving Time?

Do you get confused by Daylight Saving Time?  Are you unsure when - not to mention why - you have to change your clocks?  I hope by giving you a context for understanding this strange practice, we can clear things up. I also hope you will join my newly-founded Daylight Saving Time Liberation Front (DSTLF) and end the misery, confusion, stupidity and oppression of changing clocks once and for all. 

Join the movement! Save the Hour! 

Depressed and Oppressed by Standard Time?

If you're like me, you hate Standard Time. It's Fall when we change the clocks back to the way time was originally kept in the U.S. (thus "standard" time). After you change the clocks an hour back (2 a.m. Sunday morning November 4th 2007: to 1 a.m.), the sun sets an hour earlier. The days are already short and depressing and you need all the cheer and Vitamin D you can soak up. So what kind of cockamamie - or should I say clockamamie - oppressive system is this?

In December, especially in the North or in the eastern sides of the time zones,  the light starts leaking from the milky grey skies at 3:15 p.m. Your body tells you it's time to crawl back into the cave, stoke up the fire, huddle under some bear skins, and gnaw a bone, but you've still got another few hours of work to go.  In the morning, you commuted to work in the dark. The commute home will be in the dark. The cold will seem colder. The traffic will be more nervewracking and the inevitable sleet will seem, well, sleetier.

I know there are a few farmers left who want to waken with the cock's crow to milk the cows. I'm sure there's a few diligent, disciplined types who like to rise at 5 a.m. so they can get in their morning 6-mile jog, shower, eat their grapefruit and protein toast, answer 200 emails, read the paper, and be the first at their desks. I can hear them slapping the asphalt outside my window as I get up to go the bathroom one last time before getting those extra couple hours of beauty sleep.

But I prefer to think most Americans are like me. Enjoy Happy Hour, relish mowing the lawn on a late evening,  helping the kids with their homework and having time to play around with them. Sneak in a good read or three or four hours of surging the Web. Flirt, chat, and cuddle with the spousal unit before retiring.  In other words, I like to think most folks prefer a longer day before bed rather than more time in the morning before work.  What we really need is Permanent Daylight Saving Time!

Where the Heck Did DST Come From?

Daylight Savings Time is actually traced back to Ben Franklin. During his 1784 stay in Paris, which he thoroughly enjoyed - especially the sparkling, sexy night life - he noted that the French could strengthen their economy if they extended their day and started the night later. He actually calculated the amount of candle wax that is burned in an hour and concluded that millions of livres (French pounds) could be saved.

Daylight Saving was first enacted into law in the U.S. by Congress in The Standard Time Act of 1918 which also established regular time zones in the U.S. The reasons were similar to Franklin's: Conservation. It was WWI, rationing of common goods, fuel especially, was required by law. By keeping daylight around longer -- setting the clocks ahead through the Spring and Summer -- it conserved fuel for lighting homes. As WWI wound down, the Daylight Savings Time provision was repealed, only to be re-enacted for similar reasons during WWII (in 1942), abandoned by many states after the war was over (in 1945), re-enacted with very early dates during the energy crisis of 1974 and 1975, and then in general observed on the third Sunday of April (Spring: set clocks one hour ahead) and the last week of October (Fall: one hour back).

 2007: Longer DST (Yay!)

Now with our rising fuel costs and ecological concerns, Franklin's intuition over two hundred years ago is as relevant as ever: it makes sense to turn on the lights and crank up the heat one hour later.

So in 2005, Congress enacted a new law, part of the Energy Bill of 2005, which expand Daylight Savings Time. Starting in 2007, we Spring ahead the last Sunday in March and Fall back the first Sunday of November.  Daylight Savings Time is 4 weeks longer. Unfortunately, the darkest days of winter will still be dark and early. It's insane!

PST, PDT, EST, EDT, and the Perils of DST

As if things weren't confusing enough already, those of us who travel and meet in different time zones in the U.S, know how hard it is to coordinate conference calls or webinars. Now we have to deal not only with a change of time zones (is California 3 hours ahead or 3 hours behind? What does "ahead" mean exactly?) but a sudden one hour change in the clocks, too. How many meetings have been screwed up by these ambiguities?

Such time changes are observed not only in the U.S. but in other parts of the world, often leading to massive mayhem and misunderstanding between neighboring peoples and countries who have different laws and customs. The worst (or best) example was in September 1999. The West Bank was on Daylight Saving Time when Israel had just switched back to standard time. Palestinian terrorists prepared time bombs and smuggled them to their compadres within Israel, whose watches were set one hour earlier. As the bombs were being planted, they exploded as set -- an hour sooner than expected —killing the three terrorists rather than the intended victims,  busloads of innocent civilians.  Making Daylight Saving Time permanent will help foster world peace.

Perhaps the stupidest illustration of the mayhem caused by Standard Time is Amtrak's policy for dealing with the change in clocks: by rule, a train cannot leave a station before its announced departure time. But overnight trains during the Fall back night actually stop on the tracks mid-journey for ONE HOUR in order not to get off schedule. I've had lots of reasons to be really P.O.'ed at Amtrak inefficiency and delays over the years, but this takes the cake.

Time in the Pacific zone, generally West of the Rockies is called Pacific Standard Time (PSD) during Standard time and Pacific Daylight Time (PDT) during Daylight Saving Time.  Same for the other zones, (EDT vs. EST; etc.). To avoid confusion, I generally schedule meetings using the simpler PT, ET, CT, MT (Pacific, Eastern, Central and Mountain Time) ... but that inevitably leads to yet another tiresome exchange which is just as likely to confuse matters as clear them up.  

Join the DSTLF, End Temporal Oppression: SAVE THE HOUR!

We can end this madness and confusion! The main argument that won the day for the 2005 DST changes were traffic safety on Halloween! Studies presented to Congress showed that four times as many children were injured during traffic accidents on Halloween as on a normal night! Give them one more hour of daylight and their risks will be reduced. Beyond the energy savings, beyond the feelgood effect. Daylight Saving Time saves children's lives.

Add to that the avoidance of risks and billions of dollars in the costs of missed meetings, confused computer calendars, automatic date conversions that now have to be re-set manually, and prematurely exploding time bombs!

Sunworshippers and Nocturnal Angels Unite! Lobby your local congressperson! The time to end this insanity is now! Liberate our Clocks and our Daylight! Join the Daylight Saving Time Liberation Front and put us all one hour ahead for all time! Save the Hour!

Here's What You Can Do Right Now

Come Sunday 2 a.m. November 4, refuse to change your clock. Tell all your friends, family and co-workers that you refuse to submit to the hegemony of temporal oppressors. You want to Save the Hour! Show up for all meeting on Daylight Saving Time. Go to lunch an hour ahead of everyone else. Come into work an hour early and leave an hour early, while it's still light outside. Keep a sign on your door or cubicle: "WARNING: You are now entering a Daylight Saving Time Zone. Please set your watch ahead one hour. [Donations accepted for the DSTLF]"  Leave a jar with some loose change. Send contributions to me. If you wish to join the DSTLF, message me on SpongeFish or send e-mail to david@spongefish.com.