Every Monday, Matthew Eisley faces off against a guest columnist on a topical issue. Today: Daylight saving time. First up: Staff writer Matt Ehlers.
Let's go year-round with daylight saving time
Some people have Christmas, Super Bowl Sunday or the opening day of deer season.
I have the second Sunday in March, the day the sunshine returns.
The first day of daylight saving time has long been my favorite day of the year. Sometimes I'll just sit in the backyard, beer in hand, enjoying that first extra hour of light.
Sunshine has no business appearing before sensible people get out of bed. Standard time benefits the few.
Daylight saving time benefits the masses.
It saves energy. It makes it easier for farmers to work the fields, and Little League games to finish before dusk. It provides extra time for summer barbecues, fishing trips and splashing in the swimming pool.
Seriously. Who doesn't like sunshine? Let's make daylight saving time permanent.
There is almost nothing more depressing than sitting in a cubicle at 5 p.m. in December and gazing out the window, only to see that it's already dark. It doesn't have to happen.
Knock the clocks forward year-round and most of afternoon rush hour will occur in daylight, even in the dead of winter. The lights at home won't have to come on so early, so we'll save money.
There will be extra sunlight for shooting hoops in the driveway and for playing with kids in the heaps of leaves that we pile beneath the maple trees.
Sunshine time is quality time. Nighttime is sleepy time.
This country is mired in some depressing times. A little more sun might mean a few more smiles.
Matt Ehlers is a staff writer for The N&O. Reach him at matt.ehlers@newsobserver.com or 919-829-4889.
Return to the old dates for DST, for everyone's safety
While you're waiting for the sun to set on Halloween so your kids can go trick-or-treating, blame daylight saving time for the delay.
Until a few years ago, our nation reverted to standard time in October, which meant it was dark by 6 p.m. on Halloween, just in time for little goblins, witches and monsters to mug for candy.
Then Congress, in its infinite wisdom, moved the end of daylight saving time back a week, to November.
The shift was supposed to save the nation a little each day in energy costs, though the result is disputed. Anyway, it has other costs.
Do-gooders who backed the delay to November declared it would make trick-or-treating safer. News flash: Kids like to trick-or-treat in the dark! So now they just stay out later.
It's even worse in the spring, when the start of daylight saving time was moved three weeks earlier -- a disservice to schoolchildren waiting longer in the dark for their buses.
Last March, right after the premature start of daylight saving time, a Raleigh man was killed as he crossed Falls of Neuse Road at 7:05 a.m., 25 minutes before the late sunrise. Two days later, another predawn collision almost killed a Cary boy waiting for his school bus.
Fans of the adjusted daylight saving time like having more hours of light in the evening to do really important things, such as bar-hopping and playing Frisbee golf.
Let them get their jollies on the weekend. We should set our daylight saving time calendar to promote safety, not self-indulgence.
It's time to return to our traditional daylight saving time calendar. If we need it at all.
Matthew Eisley is editor of The N&O's North Raleigh News and Midtown Raleigh News.
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