November 2018

Huge Win for Clock Sanity in California – Prop 7 Wins Big!

November 7, 2018

I totally understand that this is not the biggest headline of the 2018 midterm elections, but we’ve got big, BIG news from the Golden State: Proposition 7 won by a huge margin.

Thanks to freaking clock-changing, I’m still getting up before 5 a.m. Denver time, so the first thing I did was check the California results and they look great. As of 4 a.m. in California, 91 percent of the vote is in and the Yes side has just a tick short of 60 percent of the vote.

Great day in the morning.

It’s a new day for the fight to #LockTheClock. photo by Viviana Rishe

This does not mean that California will get to stop changing in and out of DST right away (there are still a few more steps including a change to federal law).

Here is how it does help:

That margin is HUGE.

While there have been totally unscientific polls about the popularity of DST clock changing, and the memes run dramatically against the clock-changing, we’ve never had any solid data showing how people really feel.

Now we do.

I know it would be easy to say that California is really different than the rest of the country on this issue, but that’s just not the case. Politics is a part of this conversation, of course, but what I’ve seen first-hand is that this is not a partisan issue. Most of the state bills around the country trying to fix this are carried by Republicans, but then after they are introduced they get wide bipartisan support.

There will be much more on this blog in the future, but for now I just want to say thank you to the voters of California. We are now one step closer to ending the clock-changing insanity forever!

California Prop 7 – Are the Farmers and Housewives Against It?

November 3, 2018

I’ve been getting a ton of interest from reporters and voters in California of late because of Proposition 7, that would set California on a path to stay in Daylight Saving Time year-round.

To be prepared, I did a bit of research, and was so excited about what I found I had to share it with you here.

Image courtesy of the Library of Congress of a California “Housewife” during WWII.

It does seem odd to have to vote on Prop 7 in 2018. It’s got that weird wording that makes it clear this is the first in what would be a long series of steps needed to #LockTheClock.

So why is it needed at all?

Because of Prop 12, approved by voters in 1949.

Check it out:

You see, just after WWII, Californians had to vote to be able to have the newfangled Daylight Saving Time, which was a new version of War Time. That’s what we used during both the world wars, mostly in an effort to stay in sync with the Brits, who in turn did it because the Germans did it first. Why the Germans did that is not agreed on, at all.

Californians had twice before rejected the idea of Daylight Saving Time, in 1930 and again in 1940, but the war changed a lot. For instance, a LOT of women went to work in the war effort, like the one pictured above. The state also ballooned in size during and after the war, though it was still tiny compared to today.

So when the voters of California, especially the women, read in the information provided by the state this argument against Daylight Saving Time, well, it didn’t go so well.

My hunch is that a lot of women didn’t particularly like being called “THE HOUSEWIFE” in the first place.

And once again, the poor farmer was used in the argument on the vote no side:

As I’ve written about, the Farmer has never wanted to have any part of this debate, and yet the PR types love to trot out THE FARMER whenever they want to get their own way.

So, the measure passed, which must have made Californians feel like they were really living in the future.

But, because 1949’s Prop 12 was, like all the other propositions Californians vote on every year, ensconced in the Constitution, the only way to fix it is with another proposition. Hence 2018’s Prop 7.

Does Prop 7 Go Against The Will of the Voter from 1949?

Hard to say. All we know is that the voters wanted more daylight later in the day during the summer.

If they had been asked: Would you like more daylight near the end of the day in the summer AND the winter? I think there’s a pretty good chance they would have said yes and we wouldn’t be stuck trying to figure out how to fix the clock in our cars on Monday morning, but somehow that question never even came up.

So, there you have it. Just like your forefathers and foremothers in California in 1949, it’s up to you, the California voter of today to fix the clock for good.

Proposition 7 Daylight Saving Time in California — Pros and Cons

November 1, 2018

It’s been clear to readers of this blog that for years public sentiment has been on the side #LockTheClock — ending clock changing for Daylight Saving Time — but the evidence has been a bit scattered and anecdotal.

That’s about to change.

photo byRoberto Nickson (@g)

Californians get to vote on Proposition 7 — The Permanent Daylight Saving Time Measure — and we’ll finally have some clear data to show to the world about how the public feels about this issue.

Now, it can be a bit confusing figuring out exactly what this proposition is, and the proposition doesn’t actually do a whole lot. It basically sets some governmental wheels in motion that may lead to an end to the clock changing.

But what it can do for sure is let lawmakers in California and around the world know exactly how popular it is to have the government force all of us to get all goofed up twice a year.

So, what are some of the pros and cons of voting on Prop 7?

Pros – Reasons to vote Yes on Prop 7

Let politicians know that you are watching.
Send a message to farmers that you know that farmers have ALWAYS been against DST clock changing, and you support them and you like eating.
Let the world know that science and research should drive our decisions about how we set the clocks, not “That’s the way we’ve always done it”-ism.
Give yourself a little hope that government can get something right.
Put California in the spot of leading on this issue, something that Florida is trying to steal away. Of course, Arizona, Hawaii and Puerto Rico are already way ahead of everyone on this one.
Great way to vote for something that will not cause a big fight with your crazy uncle who lives in [insert Michigan, or wherever he lives here] on Facebook.
It’s lucky Number 7!

Cons – Reasons to vote No on Prop 7

You like suddenly having to go home from work in the dark on the Monday after the “Fall Back” time change.
You enjoy that groggy feeling on the Monday morning after the “Spring Forward” time change.
You are in favor of traffic accidents, workplace accidents, strokes, heart attacks, decreased productivity, etc.
You think it’s best to be on the losing side of history.
You think Kaiser Wilhelm got a bad wrap in WWI in Germany, and you want to see his legacy live on.
You enjoy figuring out how to reset the clock in the car, and on the microwave.
You want California to be known as the state that votes for crazy stuff, not stuff that people actually want.

So, there you have it.

If you live in California, tell all your friends and relatives to vote yes on this one, and if you don’t, this would be a great time to keep in touch with your California pals and tell them to vote yes to make the whole world a better place.