The Daylight Savings Time debate

This weekend brings Daylight Savings Time. It’s that time of the year, time to “spring forward,” which is a confusing phrase given its positive connotation since we are actually losing an hour of sleep.

 

What’s interesting is the lengthy debate that led Indiana to finally line up with almost every other state in the Union (Arizona and Hawaii are still outliers) and abide by Daylight Savings. The passionate argument had been waging in the Hoosier state for more than a hundred years before it was finally settled in 2006.

 

Alan Ehrenhalt, a contributor for Governing.com, said this is a 2005 article,“An element of the state’s business elite has always wanted to line up chronometrically and politically with the corporate establishment in New York, the better to plug into global alliances and trade opportunities. And an equally vociferous Hoosier element has always been suspicious of those goals, believing that the state’s homespun Midwestern roots are the most attractive and important part of its self-image. Somehow, the issue of time has become intertwined with that rivalry in a way that has not been true anywhere else in the country.” (read his whole article here: http://www.governing.com/columns/smart-mgmt/Clockwork-Blues.html)

 

What do you think? Were you happy when Indiana made the change?

 

Don’t forget to change your clocks!