Less Than Brilliant

Author: Trish Pennypacker
Date: March 17, 2007

Title: Less Than Brilliant
Blurb: Columnist Pennypacker Believes that Daylight Savings is a pointless tradition impressed upon Americans by the government.

Benjamin Franklin was a brilliant man, but I don't think that Daylight Saving Time was one of his brilliant ideas. Originally developed to increase the amount of daylight that was available to working people, and to decrease energy costs as a “convenience for commerce,” Daylight Saving, or Shifting, as it correctly suggests, has been met with controversy, much like the controversy I am experiencing as my children and I adapt to the time shift.
To say that children need more daylight as they are commuting to and from school is like saying that the parents, the bus drivers and the teachers are all incapable of keeping them safe. What about the kids leaving for daycare in the early morning hours, and those that arrive home well after dark? Society moves beyond the eight-to-five time frame that Shifting might benefit.
As everyone knows, the government decided that it would be beneficial to shift time earlier this spring in an attempt to save more energy. They claim that we spend one percent less energy a day by shifting an hour of daylight. I want to laugh. Do they really think that we all rise and go to bed at the same time? Don't they take into consideration that the decrease in energy consumption might be because the weather is warmer and more people are spending time outdoors and away from their homes? The government also claims that Shifting saves the United States three hundred thousand barrels of oil a year. Is this how they justify disrupting our sleep habits, by taking our focus away from the oil that they are burning as they import and deport cargo, and move U.S. battle ships and submarines?
I can't speak for every American, but I know that I am not saving electricity when I am forced to wake in the night to my daughter singing, Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star for the hundredth time. She has been so tired from waking up an hour early (and she certainly doesn't fall asleep earlier in the evening) that she sleeps an hour longer during her naptime at daycare. This refreshes her enough to make my evenings miserable, and after the umpteenth time of trying to sooth her to sleep, she finally surrenders. But by then I am wide awake. Getting out of bed, I turn on a light so I don't trip over the dog or a pile of Lego's; I turn on the stove, heat up a cup of tea, boot up my computer, set my CD player to shuffle and listen to Dylan until my eyes feel heavy once more. I would imagine that I am not the only parent who goes through this kind of ritual as I try to adjust myself and my children to the time change.
To make matters worst, we have to go through this not once, but twice a year. This year, in an attempt to reduce the hazards for trick-or-treaters, the shift will not go into effect until the first Sunday in November. I'm thinking that this adjustment will just add to the controversy over Halloween, but who am I to say anything? In the Northeast Kingdom, by the time the kids are off the bus and into their costumes, dusk is upon us, regardless of the time change, and no one can possibly tell me that they are adding an hour to my daylight hours when in the winter months there are no hours of daylight to be added, only an extra hour that will have passed unnoticed as I have bustled through my day.
If we could leave Daylight Saving on the spring format, the nation would function just as smoothly. We would have plenty of daylight in the warmer months, and in the winter months, those shuffling home from work at five o'clock might be lucky enough to enjoy the daylight for a half an hour. Maybe that half hour of evening light might be enough light to cure the depression associated with seasonal disorder. It's just a thought.
The way I see it, Daylight Saving is nothing but a rooster call from the government telling us when to rise and shine and when to tuck ourselves in for the night. It does nothing to boost our proficiency, and it demeans our intelligence. If you want more daylight, get out of bed earlier; if you are worried about safety, pay more attention; if energy usage is a concern, do your part to cut back on the energy you expend. Maybe if everybody took responsibility for themselves we wouldn't have to let the government tell us when our day begins.