POLL: Should daylight saving time be made permanent?  What do you think?

What’s your view on The Sunshine Protection Act being debated in Congress? 

Muddy River News would like to hear from you.  Share your view with our survey.

Debating The Sunshine Protection Act

The Sunshine Protection Act proposes to eliminate the biannual changing of clocks and establish daylight saving time as the year-round standard.  No more “fall back” and “spring forward.” 

The bipartisan change to permanent daylight saving time has been batted around Congress for nearly a decade.  Now it has the support of President Trump.

The debate weighs the desire for increased evening daylight and its potential economic benefits against aligning time with our body’s internal clock.

Those favoring permanent daylight saving time assert that more evening sunlight would encourage outdoor activities, recreation, and be an economic stimulus.  Think golf, boating, walking, retail outlets, and restaurants.  Too, daylight might reduce traffic accidents and crime.  (All sounds great.)

Permanent standard time, though, is said to better suit our natural circadian rhythm.  It would promote healthier sleep patterns benefiting overall health.  (We all could use that.)  In fact, some studies link daylight saving times to increased risks of heart attacks, strokes, and other health problems.  (Yikes!)

But then what about the loss of jobs for those tasked to change time pieces?  And how would we be reminded to change those fire and smoke detector batteries? 

The debate goes on.   

Timeliness

Time is one thing.  Timeliness another. 

Fr. Pacific Hug, OFM, at Quincy University, had his own way with time and timeliness.  He taught for over three decades and headed the Philosophy and Psychology Department.  He was chronically late for class. 

Students tended to show up late.  Why not? 

On a rare occasion, Fr. Pacific showed up on time.  Egad!  A student arrived late – as customary.  Fr. Pacific castigated the student who aptly replied, “Sorry Father.  I was on Pacific time!”

Then there’s Vince Lombardi time.  “If you are five minutes early, you are already ten minutes late,” he cautioned.

Timeliness won’t change even with The Sunshine Protection Act.

Regulating Time

Railroad companies introduced time zones in 1883.  Congress eventually enacted the Standard Time Act in 1918.  While Congress initially envisioned daylight saving time, this was ditched from the law a year later leading to a patchwork of different practices. 

Daylight saving time was suggested at various times even earlier. 

Benjamin Franklin satirically proposed the practice to save on candles.  Saving energy costs has been the commonly cited reason for daylight saving time.  The German Empire used it during World War I to save fuel and President Franklin Roosevelt followed suit during World War II for the same reason but ended the practice in 1945.  It was called “War Time.”  (War we don’t need.)

In 1966 the Uniform Time Act standardized daylight saving time and it is now followed throughout most of the United States.  Arizona and Hawaii are exceptions.  Of course, it doesn’t matter much in Alaska where there are about 70 days of 24-hour daylight.

Other Time Quirks

There are other time quirks.

Some parts of the world deviate time by 15 minutes.  India and Nepal are examples. 

Maybe we should consider adopting Greewich Mean Time (GMT) everywhere?  This is the local time at the Royal Observatory in Greenwich, London.  This was essential at one time for British mariners to calculate their longitude.  Latitude could be calculated from the stars.  One world; one time.

Even then, time measurement isn’t perfect.  Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) was introduced measuring time based on the atomic second and uses a 24-hour time zone.  It even has “leap seconds” to resolve discrepancies between measured time and astronomical time as measured by Earth’s rotation.  There really aren’t 24 hours in a day! 

Your Thoughts

Permanent daylight saving time?  Or permanent standard time?  Or leave it as is?

What are your thoughts?

Jim Rapp is a practicing attorney and a founding partner of Muddy River News LLC.