How does one save Daylight??

 Sunday was the first day of Daylight Saving Time. Memo to government morons: Daylight cannot actually be saved. DST is like cutting a foot of material off a blanket and sewing it on the other end and then claiming that your blanket is longer. There's no more daylight. Like every other government program, it's mostly a fraud.

The world is divided into 24 time zones. Where I live in North Carolina, we are in the Eastern Time Zone. Long ago and far away in a place called the United States, there were more than 144 local time zones. In 1883, we went to four time zones in the continental United States. We did it for transportation schedules. The trains needed standard time to operate efficiently. Today, the trains have been replaced by the airlines. It's obvious that the airlines don't care about being on time, but we are stuck with Standard Time

One of the most frequent reasons heard for the fraud of DST is "My kids are coming home from school in the dark." So, we go to DST so that the little bastards can go to school in the dark. It just doesn't make sense since most schools are out in the summer.

So, if your reason for wanting to screw with the time is about your kids going to school in the dark, there's a better solution.  Let's end summer vacation for schools and go to winter vacation. Let's face it, the number of kids out on vacation who are working the farm has dropped substantially. Winter vacation could be from December through February. That would miss most of the winter weather and you wouldn't have to worry about your teenager out in the dark at the bus stop at 5:00 PM. They would be at home on winter vacation and instead would be playing outside at 5:00 PM in the dark. 

Give students two weeks of vacation during the school year just like most workers get vacations. Wouldn't life be simpler if you picked when you wanted to take your kids on vacation and not let the school board decide? That would be easier than giving everybody time off in the summer. Instead of going to Florida in the summer, you could go in the fall or spring, when it costs less. You could go to the mountains and go skiing on vacation. You could go to Washington, DC when Congress is actually there, and it isn't so hot when you are in line at the Smithsonian museums.

I don't think that people understand that sunrise and sunset occur at different times in different places in the time zone. This morning, the sun will rise in Kitty Hawk, NC at 7:20 AM. In Reidsville, it will rise at 7:36 AM. In Pigeon Forge, TN it will rise at 7:52 AM. So, Daylight Saving Time doesn't work as well on a spherical planet as it does on a chart in a government office. 

But I saved the most egregious example for last. Lubec, Maine is the most eastern point in the Eastern Time Zone and the United States. For those of you who aren't geeks and nerds, here's another reminder that the spherical planet doesn't work like a flat map. Lubec is the closest point in the United States to Africa. That's why I have a globe. Ontonagon, Michigan is the furthest west city in the Eastern Time Zone. Today the sun will rise in Lubec at 6:49 AM EDT. The sun will rise in Ontonagon at 8:19 AM EDT. Let's drop all of that "kids at the bus stop" talk.

Here's the reality. It takes a couple of weeks for people to get accustomed to the time change. If we will just wait a few weeks until the spring equinox, the days will be longer anyway. Productivity drops every year for lots of businesses at time change. People who are on a regular schedule take time to adjust. What time did you wake up this morning?  Is being able to watch your kids play outside at 8:30 PM really worth it?

A friend of mine and his wife visited Hawaii a few years ago. He said that you can tell who the East Coast people are visiting Hawaii. They are the ones out walking the beach at 3:00 AM. 

Call your Congressman. Tell him that it is time to stop screwing with the time.