Watching the multitude of campaign ads on TV, Letters To The Editor in our local paper, posts on blogs and on Facebook, it is easy to see the political rhetoric has been cranked up to ‘11’. There’s a lot of opinion out there about various candidates or government policies and so on. There are plenty of reasoned opinions on both sides and well as wholly delusional and ignorant opinions, too.
However, one topic that has been very hot, specifically on Facebook, has been something I wouldn’t have expected, something that crosses political lines as those on opposite sides of this issue does not fall along political lines. What issue am I talking about?
Daylight Saving Time.
There has been a running debate between people who want to remain on DST year round and those who want to remain on Standard Time.
I have been passionate about wanting to remain on DST or , if not possible, switching New Hampshire (and Maine) to the Atlantic Time Zone. Then I would be quite happy to remain on Standard Time.
As I have mentioned now and then, here and there, I think the support for remaining on DST is probably heaviest for those who are on the eastern edge of the four time zones in the Lower 48. This also implies that support for remaining of Standard Time is probably heaviest from those who live on the western edge of the four time zones.
I dislike the idea of remaining on Standard Time over the summer because that means sunrise will be taking place at just after 4AM here at Lake Winnipesaukee on the first day of summer. Thanks, but no thanks. Sunset will be at 7:30PM. On the first day of winter sunrise will be at a little after 7AM and sunset will be at a little past 4PM. (Both of these times are a little misleading because with the hills and mountains around the lake, sunrise and sunset is a little later or earlier, respectively. Here at The Gulch the sun disappears behind the surrounding hills at between 2:30PM and 3:30PM during winter months.)
I know I would much prefer to have light in the afternoon rather than the morning over the winter months. Those against the idea of DST year round keep bringing up the issue of kids having to go to school in the dark. During the depths of winter, quite a few of our school kids do that anyways because they have to catch a school bus at a little after 6AM which means they are going to school in the dark. It seems to me that in a lot of places kids are going to school in the dark, particularly places that even farther north than New Hampshire and Maine and they don’t seem to have problems doing so. Another solution is to start school later in the morning, something that a number of groups have been advocating for, specifically for teenagers as their circadian rhythms are off and they do better with a later starting time.
A number of states have already passed legislation to remain on DST year round, neighboring Maine being one of them.
It will be interesting to see how this plays out going forward. One thing that both the pro- and anti-year round DST folks do have in common is they both hate having to change their clocks twice a year and deal with the aftereffects of doing so. Count me as of those folks.
