This essay should have been written a number of years ago. It records my resentment and anger at the imposition of daylight savings time. I hope that there are others who are as dismayed as I am about the imposition of daylight savings time. In my limited field of acquaintances, no one has expressed an appreciation of going into daylight savings time.
Curiously my resentment has only to do with the springtime version when we enter into daylight savings time. There is no resentment whatsoever in the fall when we come off daylight savings time and return to standard time. My anger and resentment have to do with the imposition of daylight savings time which occurs each year at about this time. As a matter of fact, daylight savings time started only yesterday. My anger is not yet dispelled which as all of my readers will appreciate how long it must be held in check until November comes and we return to normal time.
My recollection of daylight savings time started during World War II. One way or another, I still have thoughts of the River Rouge plant run by Henry Ford to make B-24 Bombers. I suspect that pushing the bombers around so that they could be worked on in daylight may be the reason for the imposition of daylight savings time. Henry Ford turned out an enormous number of B-24 Bombers and made a vital difference to the defense of this country. However, I must point out that the war ended in 1945, which was almost 70 years ago. To have daylight savings time thrust upon us at this time makes no sense at all.
Now the Republican House of Representatives is trying to get in on the act. Last year, a representative succeeded in having a bill passed that would start daylight savings time a week or two earlier. So here we are with no war to fight and no bombers to take care of, the imposition of daylight savings time remains with us. The entry of politicians of either party on a matter such as daylight savings time should be resented.
I know that my anger and resentment will not change things. It is the way of life in these United States. For the record, it is my contention that the start of daylight savings time is more than an annoyance. It has reached the level of a full-fledged detriment to life in this country. We now have to get up in the dark. Because so many nations do what the United States does, the fact is that other countries adopted daylight savings time for no other reason than to copy the United States.
As I said at the beginning, this essay should have been written a good many years ago. We abandon standard time and go toward daylight savings time. This has always stirred up anger and resentment coming from me. In the fall, when we return to standard time, my delight is enormous. But the fact is that we are only able to enjoy standard time for about five months per year, which I must say is a travesty.
My father, always a philosopher, contended that daylight savings time “is not natural.” I do not agree with much that my father said but in this case he was absolutely right. It is not natural for free human beings to keep a timetable which I suspect many of us resent. My thought is that the use of standard time should always be the rule. In the event of some sort of emergency, we could go to daylight savings time. That would be an extraordinary circumstance and I see no reason, particularly no political reason, for departing from standard time.
As I said, this is an essay that should have been written many years ago. The fact that it is slightly out of date does not alter my resentment and anger at the move toward daylight savings time which occurred a day or two ago. I know that we must live with it, which is living in resentment. Anytime a politician runs on the platform of only standard time in this country, he will have my vote. My financial circumstances are limited but I will employ whatever I can spare from my financial resources. In the end, the imposition of daylight savings time, which started only yesterday, arouses exactly the same anger and resentment that it has always aroused. This is not a transient affair. It is anger, which I hope is turned into a political campaign. In the end, I contend that in agreement with my father, with whom I do not have many agreements, daylight savings time ain’t natural.
E. E. CARR
March 11, 2013
Essay 739
~~
Kevin’s commentary: There is in fact at least one other Essay on the subject. You can find it here. True to form it is written at the tail end of daylight savings time and takes a predictably happier tone.
For my part, I actually liked daylight savings time very much when I was in school, because I generally woke up late enough that it was light out anyway, and sometimes would leave class at 5 or 6pm. If you’re not on daylight savings, sometimes 6pm means the sun is already down, which means it’s dark as you’re walking home. That’s no good.
Now that I work I have yet to really make up my mind. But I am willing to bet that Pop is probably one of the most passionate blind people on this issue, in which he nominally has little stake at this point in his life.