The Whys and Wherefores of Daylight Savings Time

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The Whys and Wherefores of Daylight Saving Time The question I always ask myself on the second Sunday morning in March when I look at the clock upon waking up and see that is already an hour later than my usual waking hour, is “Why?” I feel I am already behind and I scramble to catch up all day long and then, when the clock tells me that it is time to go to bed, I really don’t feel like it, but know if I don’t, the next morning will bring a struggle to wake up and get going. And then along comes the first Sunday in November. It’s easy to get up – the sun is where it should be. But around eight or nine o’clock in the evening I feel myself getting drowsy, but have to wage a painful battle to stay awake because I know if I go to bed too early, the next day I will be waking up hours before I should. So, once again, I ask why? Why can’t they just leave the time alone! I say it’s time to stop the insanity of Daylight Saving Time once and for all. Just as many people enjoy early morning light as do extended evening light and if there is no real evidence of energy savings during DST, it’s time to do away with it. The story goes that Benjamin Franklin (remember “early to bed and early to rise”) was the first American to suggest Daylight Saving Time (and, by the way, it is Saving, not Savings as most of us say) because he felt that not using that extra early morning daylight in the summer months was just wasteful. But he never was able to implement it. The first year Daylight Saving Time was actually observed in the United States was 1918, but it wasn’t mandatory. Only the states that chose to observe it did so. It became mandatory during World War II with the thinking that valuable resources would be saved for the war effort and it was observed year round. In the seventies, during the Arab oil embargo, once again the US observed year round Daylight Saving Time. Now, we
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