Daylight Savings Time

A rant on time un-saved.

Daylight Savings Time is terrible. States have the authority to opt out. Arizona officially does not practice Daylight Savings Time. Does this mean states can set their own time? Do native reservations set their own time? From where does this power to define time comes from? How far does it trickle down in our government structure?

This post is a personal and political rant on time.

I remember my first introduction to daylight savings time. It was through the resistance of my grandmother Be-Be, who drove around with her clock permanently on the standard time. I remember being absolutely tickled at eight when she explained the whole system to me, and described why the time on my watch was different than the one in her car. I remember being in awe of this act of resistance. The concept of personal agency to be able to decide what customs you do and do not accept.

For a little background on the issue, here are the current exhibition slides on how the National Watch and Clock museum in Pennsylvania contextualizes time zones and daylight savings time:

Ever since my grandmother has introduced me to the fight for time justice, I have been a faithful foot soldier for the continuity of the human experience of time. From these years in the rabbit hole I have been trying to better understand why we would come to this grand re-measurement. From what I can see, Daylight Savings Time is essentially better for service industry because there are more evenings with light after office hours, and standard time is better for industry as there are more early office hours. The year is split to share the benefits between the industries.

Yes, reservations and states have the right to set their own time. Some states, including Louisiana, have trigger laws stating that they will go to full-time daylight savings time if the federal government makes the change (Which is pretty unnecessary positioning via policy because it would be de facto applied at the state level if it was adopted federally…) Marc Rubio and Vern Buchanan of Florida have an absolutely heinous bill on the floor titled the "Sunshine Protection Act" that would make daylight savings time permanent. Don’t get me wrong, I am happy to stop switching, but adopting permanent daylight savings instead of patterned time is just moving to live in a permanent lie.

To me, the lie is that we humans can control time. Its a conspiracy that goes all the way to the top of my philosophy. I view the clock as a collaborative vocabulary based on trust between human efforts of measurement and the earth’s predictable movement. The usefulness of a clock is built on the resulting relationship between earth movement and human measurement. When we observe daylight savings time, we assume a leniency to shift our measurement without observing the earth shifting its movement. This grace based on human interests removes the need to respect the movement of earth from our system of measurement created specifically for measuring the earth’s movement. Its absolutely wild.

By observing Daylight Savings Time, we collectively posit that human policy has the ability to control the earth. This philosophical seed is a dangerous. It seems to imply that if enough people and organizations collectively agree, we have the ability to move the physical laws. It is the door mat to a breadth of off-base positions around human ability to control, or even manage, the Earth.

So why do we live in this disillusion? Why would we want to live in this permanent disconnect?

I assume that one of the reasons that Arizona does not observe Daylight Savings is because of the political pull of the Indigenous community. Many communities have practices which require an honest relation to the sun (I would love to hear from anyone who may have thoughts on this). I wonder if this shared cultural value overcame profit evaluation within the voting agenda for this state?

The only good thing about the Sunshine Act is that it did create a clear path through the Congressional machine on how and who to prod for change. By following the movement of the Sunshine Act we can suss out who and how permanent federal time changes would be brought through committee to the floor into law. This is a route first through the House Committee on Energy and Commerce, with a Innovation, Data, and Commerce.

It says a lot that each human’s entire experience of time is perceived by our government as a resource of energy and commerce. I would have thought this would be an issue for, like, the Office of Weights and Measures. In many ways the delegating of time to this committee IS the crux of the issue, as it bases a fundamental measurement as an operation of commerce.

Right now IS the time to act if we want this to change. Back in 2023 Speaker of the House Mike Johnson was fresh in his position and I had just moved into his district in Louisiana. I saw my shot. I tried to move the mechanism of politics to drag his pull into the momentum of this issue. I emailed him as a voting citizen within his district and urged him to use his name as the speaker to put in a research request to the congressional research staff on the implications of dropping daylight savings time. I was hoping that he would feel compelled to listen as I am his constituent, and the Library of Congress would feel compelled to expedite the request as he is the Speaker of the House. Here is what I wrote:

Congressman M. Johnson,

Daylight Savings Time is upon us, and though it is not the most pressing issue, it still reduces the efficiency and logic of our country. I urge you to formally request an update from the Library of Congress Congressional Research Services to publish an addendum to their 2020 CRS report on Daylight Savings Time which includes the requested update from DOT on information related to DST and standard time.

The last report created on this matter was the 2020 R45208| Daylight Saving Time (DST) written by Corrie E. Clark and Lynn J. Cunningham. The report ends with a call for necessary information from DOT which was not available at the publication of this report. See Below for quote from report:

"Information on the benefits and costs of changing the length of DST observance may be of congressional interest. On March 12, 2018, the House Committee on Energy and Commerce sent a letter to the DOT requesting updated information related to DST and standard time “to more fully appreciate the various policy factors associated with changing between Standard and [DST].”69 DOT responded to the committee with a letter on June 20, 2018, stating the Department has “initiated a literature review of this issue” and it “will share the results” once completed.70 As of September 2020, the committee has not received the results of the literature review." - link to report: https://crsreports.congress.gov/product/pdf/R/R45208

This necessary due diligence will bolster Congress' ability to make informed decisions on both sides of the aisle. This is specifically relevant to the subcommittee on Innovation, Data, and Commerce as they review H.R.1561 - DAYLIGHT Act.

How can we design and impact meaningful change within this country if we are unable to act on an injustice which impacts every citizen, is economically costly, serves only vestigial purposes, and everyone unanimously loathes? Fully removing Daylight Savings Time restores our nation's connection with reality. Restoring non-fluctuating time zones prepares our country for increased efficiency in globalized trade and clear worldwide solidarity with the global community's understanding and translation of the passage of time.

I urge you to reach out to CRS, and request that they pressure DOT to produce this report. If this review and report have already been created, please request that CRS update, revise, or create a new report on the economic impacts of Daylight Savings Time which includes this DOT information.

Thank you for your TIME,

Hali Dardar

I shot my shot. I felt pure, free, proud and #american. To be honest, it was the first time I ever wrote a representative to press an issue that impacted my life (though I should have much earlier). To my delight, his team responded adroitly. Sadly, he side-stepped the issue and gave a non-response with no promise to action. You can read the reply in the screenshots below:

BTW, the report they mention is the Sept 30, 2020 Congressional Research Service Report on Daylight Savings Time: https://crsreports.congress.gov/product/pdf/R/R45208/8

I would love to do more, meet more people, organize, make change, and take back our time. I am unsure of how to do it all. I am overwhelmed by being alone, and I have no faith that what I think of as fundamentally vital to a good life translates into any definition of importance to those who manage my life. I feel disengaged, tired, and passive in my misery. No ballot in my lifetime has put forth a chance to act any meaningful change on fundamental fallacy.

So that is where I am right now. In Daylight Savings Time, and in US democracy in general.

As for changing clocks, I am personally off the stuff. I switched my phone to permanent UTC, or Universal Standard Time in 2019 and haven’t looked back. I do not change my clocks when I travel to different time zones, and I do not observe Daylight Savings time. Sure, I always doing mental math and slightly confused about exactly what hour it is, but that’s just life on the high road baby. 😎