Radio Free Montone: Leave Our Clocks Alone!
Hey, Ben Franklin, stick to lightning rods. Leave our clocks alone.
Even geniuses come up with bad ideas. And so it was when our founding inventor suggested Daylight Saving or is it Daylight Savings Time? People can't even agree on what to call it, never mind why it's still around. The U.S. government first turned clocks ahead by an hour to cut coal consumption during World War II. Since then Daylight Saving defenders have claimed that by adding an hour of sunlight in the evening we cut down on electric use. Others argue that whatever power we save by not lighting our dwellings, we lose by blasting the AC.
So for no good reason we have an entire population of bleary-eyed, sleep-deprived people operating cars and trucks, trains and planes. Not to mention bulldozers. A fellow I interviewed for my report on 1010 WINS Monday morning told me that the loss of that one hour leaves him feeling tired on the job for weeks. Danger! Danger! Drowsy man driving bulldozer. And a trucker I talked to was downing a king-sized Colombian coffee hoping it would keep him awake all day. Sleeping truckers may be one reason why highway fatalities spike the first week of Daylight Saving…Savings? Time every year. And what if an airline pilot felt jet-lagged? "Ladies and gentleman, we are (yawn) approaching JFK International Airport…(yawn), I think."
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To me Daylight Saving Time is piling on, roughing the quarterback. I arise at 3:20 A.M. Monday-to-Friday to hit the streets for 1010 WINS. This forces me to put head to pillow rather early. So early that on the rare occasions that I have a week day off, I'm genuinely amazed that people are out and about after the sun goes down. Restaurants serve food at 8 P.M.? On Friday and Saturday nights I attempt to adjust my body clock for the purpose of enjoying some meager social life. Then on Sunday night I try to hit the sack early, again but I toss and turn and peek at the clock radio with its brightly lit digits taunting me. 10:30. 12:07. Still awake? 1:48. I usually doze off just in time to be jolted out of a dream…oh, come on, Marilyn Monroe was laughing at my joke…jolted out of a dream by the 1010 WINS news sounder at 3:20 A.M. Then I call Editor Maloney who has gotten even less shut-eye and we talk about how these hours are killing us.
But enough complaining. I am here to offer a deal to our government which still insists on saving an hour of sunlight in spring and summer. Let Daylight Saving Time become our time, all the time. No springing ahead, no falling back.
You give us 24-hours and we'll give you the same time, every day. Come on, I'm getting tired of being so tired.
