Clinton Township Newsletter

3 m a r c h 2 0 2 2 Oriental Rug Specialist Since 1934 Sale & Service of Oriental Rugs & Carpets One thing I really love about March is that we know spring, and beautiful weather, can't be far behind. And one thing about March that makes me cranky is Daylight Saving Time (DST) – the practice of advancing clocks by one hour so that evening daylight lasts an hour longer, while sacrificing normal sunrise times. We adjust clocks forward one hour close to the start of spring and adjust them backward in the fall to "Standard Time" – an annoying and outdated concept. I love having the "extra hour" of daylight each night after DST, but isn't this just a form of magical thinking? The sun doesn't consult with the clock. Fall Back? Spring Ahead? No thank you. According to Wikipedia, the reasoning is thus: "Starting on April 30, 1916, the German Empire and its World War I ally Austria-Hungary were the first to use DST (German: Sommerzeit) as a way to conserve coal during wartime. Britain, most of its allies, and many European neutrals soon followed suit. Russia and a few other countries waited until the next year and the United States adopted it in 1918. Broadly speaking, DST was abandoned in the years after the war (with some notable exceptions including Canada, the UK, France, and Ireland). However, it was brought back for periods of time in many different places during the following decades, and commonly during World War II. It became widely adopted, particularly in North America and Europe, starting in the 1970s as a result of the 1970s energy crisis." One year when my kids were young, New Jersey decided to roll out a new, state-wide standardized week-long test... scheduled to begin the first Monday after DST. (Have you ever tried to get pre-teens up an hour early? It's like pouring molasses at the top of the stairs and waiting for it to get to the bottom.) Flabbergasted, I emailed our then- Superintendent. Her response, paraphrased: I know – it's terrible. That decision came straight from the state, and we have no say in the matter." Was no one in the NJ Education Administration checking the calendar when planning their testing schedule for the year? Or were they, like me, trying to pretend that DST doesn't actually exist – again, magical thinking. No one seems to enjoy DST, and yet no one seems to know how to put an end to it, either. According to the National Conference of State Legislators (NCSL.org), "State legislatures continue to grapple with the vexing and multifaceted state policy questions regarding the biannual changing of the clocks. Most all of the states have considered legislation over the last several years that would place the state permanently on either standard time or daylight saving time. Since 2015, at least 350 bills and resolutions have been introduced in virtually every state, but none of significance passed until 2018, when Florida became the first state to enact legislation to permanently observe DST, pending amendment of federal law to permit such action. In the last four years, 19 states have enacted legislation or passed resolutions to provide for year-round daylight saving time, if Congress were to allow such a change, and in some cases, if surrounding states enact the same legislation. Because federal law does not currently allow full-time DST, Congress would have to act before states could adopt changes. The solution seems simple – please let's just decide on one time and stick with it. Wouldn't it be great if future generations had no idea what the words "daylight saving" meant? Of course, the decision to do away with changing the clocks twice a year will have to come from a higher authority than I. In the meantime, I hope you get a good night's sleep, and get ready for spring! -Julie Flynn Carol Beder's DAYS TO KEEP IN MIND Tuesday March 1 Mardi Gras Wednesday March 2 Ash Wednesday Read Across America Sunday, March 13 Daylight Saving (Start) Monday March 14 Pi Day Wednesday March 16 Purim Thursday March 17 St. Patrick's Day Sunday March 20 Spring Equinox

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