Daylight Savings
In my morning news browsing I came across this article:
http://www.cnn.com/2005/POLITICS/07/22/congress.daylighttime.ap/index.html
Apparently in an effort to save energy there are some lawmakers who are pushing to extend daylight savings time. I have a hard time expressing how much I hate this idea. I already hate dealing with daylight savings time. It is so hard to put kids to bed when the sun is still shining. I just don’t see why daylight savings time was instituted in the first place. What on earth does it gain for us? I have a hard time believing that it saves very much energy. And if it does I’d rather save it a different way. I have a hard time believing that daylight savings is biorythmically good for people.
This quotation from the article was particularly awful:
Upton noted that the extension means daylight-saving time will continue
through Halloween, adding to safety. “Kids across the nation will soon rejoice,”
said Upton, because they’ll have another hour of daylight trick-or-treating.
Could he possibly be more out of touch? Kids don’t want to trick-or-treat in daylight! They want it dark! He’ll just force hundreds of parents to allow their kids to stay up even further past bedtime so that the trick-or-treating can be after dark.
This is one of those issues that could fly through under the radar of most americans, but will significantly affect every individual in the country if it passes. I guess what makes me mad is this guy assuming that everyone is going to be overjoyed that he’s shifting their lives around.
EDIT Aug 8 2005: The measure passed. Grr. Also I’ve been reminded that I am extremely fortunate to live in a safe neighborhood where children can trick or treat after dark. In many many places dark means the end of trick or treat time because the streets simply aren’t safe. I’ll deal with it, but it won’t make me happy.