Let’s get one thing absolutely clear before we go any further: Benjamin Franklin was kidding. In 1784 the founding father, who once used the alias Polly Baker, wrote of his astonishment at the early rising of the sun. He proposed waking sleepers by taxing windows with the shutters drawn and firing cannons at dawn, all to save candles.
On the second Sunday of every March we pay a price for not getting the joke. The government acts as an all-powerful Ticktockman, disappearing into the night with 60 minutes that plainly don’t belong to them.
A 12-year study published by the Association for Psychological Science found U.S. judges are like everyone else: cranky when sleep deprived. Sentences handed out Monday after the clocks move are about five per cent longer than usual.
The risk of heart attacks rises. Productivity dips.
It’s chrono-piracy that makes everyone poorer and no one richer, despite protestations that it’s “lighter in the evenings.”
The centre of the universe is indifferent to our clocks, and so we encourage everyone to bypass government intervention and acquaint themselves with jolly round Mr. Sun in their own way.
However, there is a movement afoot in Alberta that would end our biannual harassment of Father Time.
Tentatively speaking, the plan is to move the clocks once in accordance with daylight saving time and then to do nothing else.
Without exaggeration, we believe that might be the most brilliant piece of legislation we’ve ever encountered.
This election season, let’s not support change. Let’s support a change back.
No kidding.
What are your thoughts? Send us a letter via email by clicking here or post a comment below.
