An understanding of the basic concepts of Daylight Saving Time.
Students who are willing to engage with local elected officials for non-partisan education.
The steps to participation are as follows:
As appropriate for your students’ grade level, lecture about the history of Daylight Saving Time or ask the students to research the history and write a research report. Here’s a good start of research resources about DST.
Once the research is done, gauge interest in trying to make a difference in ending DST clock-changing.
If interest is sufficient, have the students research the plan presented on this site.
If as a class, or as an independent project, students want to be part of the plan to change the law they should find their local state legislators from the state senate as well as the house or whatever the other body is known as. (Or in Nebraska, only the senators.) This tool usually works.
Introduce them to the concept, and then the model language, and tell them about the progress being made in other states using this language.
Be sure to follow-up and thank the official.
The best time to talk to a legislator is in the fall, before the legislative session begins.
All state capitols have arrangements for tours for students during the legislative session. Be sure students know their legislators to arrange a brief meeting while visiting the statehouse.
If your legislator introduces the model legislation, or some version of it, be sure to contact any and all local media to let them know about your support for the position and your role in sparking the discussion.
Once the resolution is passed be sure to ask the legislator if you can be present for any bill-signing ceremony.
And of course, if you have any success at all, be sure to let us know via the contact info on this page and we’ll be sure to highlight your success on this blog.
Staying in DST will improve traffic safety in the winter months, and there is no increased risk to students waiting for school buses: (Journal of Safety Research.)
Update in October, 2020: Welcome to this page. For some reason the search engines are sending a lot of traffic to this page, even though it’s more than five years old. For much more up-to-date info, check the Current DST Legislation page. And please be in touch!
A number of states have forward-thinking legislators negotiating the waters in their own states, but there’s now one state who’s taken the model resolution I wrote, and introduced it into the legislative process.
Remember, this whole thing started as me just complaining about the difficulty of adjusting twice per year, and now it is officially a legislative initiative that could quickly spread to all of the 48 states that are currently stuck in the clock-changing rut.
Thanks to Sen. Glover for having the courage to go first.
If you, too, hate changing clocks twice per year and want to get involved, just find your representatives to the state legislature, and urge them to pass this resolution. Be sure to tell them it’s a resolution — not a law — which makes it much easier to get approved.
State lawmakers really do enjoy hearing from constituents, and with the time change this weekend and the deadly Monday Morning coming up, this is the perfect time to get involved.
If you happen to be reading this on Friday morning, March 6, tune in to HuffPo Live at about 10:15 a.m. EST, and be sure to join the conversation. The more we can show how much the people are tired of the clock-changing, the easier it will be to convince legislators to take action.
If you can’t tune in, go take this one-question poll from AccuWeather. When I took it public sentiment was more than two-to-one against the clock changing.
With the Spring Forward change coming up soon, the attention to Daylight Saving Time is ratcheting up.
But it seems a bit different this year.
Typically the attention from the media and most people is to just get the instructions, and move on.
Then in recent years there’s been more a sense of bemusement about the time change. People that talk about sticking with one time zone year-round get a nice pat on the head and a bit of a laugh.
There’s no question that Daylight Saving Time is comedy gold. Historians think Ben Franklin was joking when he suggested moving the clocks around to increase productivity.
Then this video that appeared last year was a huge hit, and justifiably so:
But I’ve noticed a subtle shift in the tone of the coverage and the sentiment this year. What is it?
Well, first there’s the coverage of the legal efforts to end the clock-changing.
At least a 14 states by my count have some kind of legislation in some level of discussion this year. The coverage is more sober than it’s been in the past. Before a typical story would begin with some trivial anecdote. Now the stories are more like this one from Alaska.
JUNEAU — A state Senate committee has advanced a bill that would exempt Alaska from daylight saving time, a measure that its sponsor said would be good for the health of state residents.
No bad puns. No winking references. Just a straight-up news story.
And with the serious nature of the proposal comes resistance that’s just as serious. A different Alaskan legislator is now fighting the proposed change.
Of course, the biggest opponent to change is the United States Government, specifically the Department of Transporation.
The feds try to make it clear that they control the time zones, not the states. One state learned this very clearly. Other states will find out their efforts on this are doomed soon enough.
But the progress in the coverage reminds me of the great quote:
First they ignore you.
Then they laugh at you.
Then they fight you.
Then you win.
(It turns out that Gandhi probably never said that, but it’s still a great quote.)
How will we win?
It’s hard to say for sure. Congress certainly doesn’t seem to hold any hope.
In my home state of Colorado, a band of citizens has gotten approval to collect signatures and get a measure on the ballot for people to vote on.
I support this measure, even though I worry that all that work may be for nothing if the Feds reject this the same way they reject every other state-based effort. Supporters of that movement think that it will be analogous to the marijuana initiative: Not consistent with what the feds want, but allowed to exist anyway. Maybe they are right.
Perhaps this is Stockholm Syndrome or something, but I actually think the Feds have a point in wanting uniformity of time zones in the whole country. I don’t want people in New York to have to figure out if Denver is two or three hours different depending on the time of year. The disruption to transportation is real.
It’s deceptively simple, even more simple than my original plan of trying to get states to pass a law. With this plan legislatures simply voice an opinion, an opinion supported by the wide majority of their constituents.
And if enough states pass this resolution it may act as just the bump that the Department of Transportation needs to recognize that interstate commerce is best served by keeping the states uniform AND by not allowing a time change that dramatically increases traffic accidents.
This Monday — right after the “spring forward” change — U.S. citizens will die.
They will die in traffic accidents to that their families will seem tragic. And those accidents will in fact be tragic because they are preventable.
There is no energy savings. There is no help to farmers. There is no safety issue for school children.
There is no sane reason to keep switching into and out of time zones other than the fact that we started doing it during World War I and somehow never really stopped.
There’s no humor in that. None.
And that is why they aren’t laughing at this idea any more. They may fight it, but that’s better than laughing at it, and certainly better than ignoring it.
The fight means we’ve almost won. It seems far off, but in the sweep of history it’s very near indeed. The Department of Transportation controls this, and could do something, but won’t until they hear clearly from the states that it’s time.
It is time.
What now?
If you agree, and haven’t yet taken any action, I suggest the following:
Good: Like, tweet, share this post
Better: Write your own post, update, status or whatever and share it with your legislators and other influencers.
Best: Contact your state legislator and urge them to introduce this Resolution.
I’ve gotten emails from legislators in four states now. This thing is happening, and you can be a part of this victory if you take some action right now.
Here is a model language for a resolution that legislators in any state can freely.
Title: Stop Dangerous and Antiquated Clock-Changing Federal Daylight Saving Time Mandate
WHEREAS the history of changing clocks relative to the sun for political reasons originated with Ben Franklin, who proposed re-orienting the time to increase productivity as an elaborate practical joke;
WHEREAS the United States has used some version of “Daylight Saving Time” since 1918 when it was rushed into place as a wartime measure after Germany and then England enacted a similar scheme;
WHEREAS after World War I local jurisdictions had some control over how they set their clocks until the passage of the Uniform Time Act of 1966, which mandates that every state participate in the practice of changing the clocks twice per year unless they opt for permanent Standard Time;
WHEREAS uniformity among the 50 states is essential for interstate commerce, even with Arizona and Hawaii having opted for permanent Standard Time;
WHEREAS “Daylight Saving Time” has proven highly beneficial in the early spring, late fall and summer months for health, commerce, recreation and much more, making it highly popular among businesses and the general population;
WHERAS a recent poll showed 68 percent of U.S. residents gave support for Permanent Daylight Saving Time, with only 14 percent opposed;
WHEREAS the overwhelming conclusion of researchers is that the act of changing the clocks twice per year is the direct cause of deadly heart attacks, traffic accidents, workplace injuries, pedestrian deaths, crime, suicides, sleep disruption, and a loss of productivity;
WHEREAS researchers have determined that remaining in Daylight Saving Time year round will save significant amounts of energy in November and February and furthermore will lead to a decrease in childhood obesity by increasing the amount of sunlight after school hours and decrease smog in the winter because rush hour will happen more in the daylight;
WHEREAS the rationale for switching clocks twice per year to aid in the war effort — while based on faulty science — may have been laudable more than 100 years ago, all scientific research and public sentiment in Colorado now clearly favor remaining in Daylight Saving Time year round.
NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED by the Legislature of the state of Colorado that it is the sentiment of this legislative body and of the people represented by this body that the United States should change what is currently “Daylight Saving Time” to the new “Standard Time” and stay with that time year-round;
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that this Resolution be delivered to the President of the United States, and the Colorado delegation in the U.S. Congress urging passage of any legislation that would put an end to the deadly, energy-wasting, productivity-killing, twice-yearly clock changing.
In a recent post, I commended a state senator from Alabama for trying to get his state off the crazy clock changing and stay in Daylight Saving Time year-round.
I also pointed out that he was doomed.
Since then a bunch of other states have legislators that want to make the world a better place by ending all the clock changing. Some of them don’t yet know that they are doomed.
The guy in Alabama, however, does know, and announced as much to the press: The Federal Government has control over the clocks. States can pass whatever bills they want to pass, the feds will just tell them, “Too bad.”
That’s why I’ve been advocating a radical but simple plan: All the states need to pass similar legislation saying that they want to get out of DST.
The bill would say simply: At the point that two-thirds of all states pass a similar bill, at that point we will apply to the Federal Department of Transportation to go into permanent DST.
If two-thirds of the states move all at the same time to fix this, it will get fixed.
I’m hopeful that Alabama will be one of the first to pass this new plan. The beauty of the plan, of course, is that it should be a pretty easy vote for legislators. They aren’t saying they want to be the first to change, they are just saying that if everyone agrees to change, they don’t want to be left out.
Alabama legislators are now considering it because they’ve learned the hard truth. Texas, Utah, New Mexico and probably some others haven’t gotten the bad news yet, but when they do I hope they will consider joining in this plan.
When the DST piece I wrote on CNN appeared, and then the fall time change happened, there was an understandable surge in interest.
Then I got busy at work, and Thanksgiving, bla bla bla, here I am a month later posting the next blog post. (Not great for a guy who’s day job is about the importance of blogging regularly.)
Suddenly this week there’s a surge of activity related to getting rid of all the dumb clock changing into and out of Daylight Saving Time.
In my home state of Colorado, a personal trainer and his wife have made it their mission to stay in DST year round. See their story here, and the page they set up here.
I wrote to Sean Johnson, the guy leading that group. I really want to encourage him, because any efforts to raise awareness are great. Respectfully, I tried to point out to him that his efforts in the particular direction he’s headed may not work. Several state legislators have learned this lesson the hard way: The federal government just won’t let states set their own time zone. That’s what the law in 1966 was all about.
I’m hoping that he will take his considerable talents and motivation and direct it toward a plan that could really work. All the other efforts since 1966 have failed, and I fear his will, too.
What’s the plan? It’s outlined in the posts below, but basically it’s to go to state legislatures and ask them to pass a bill that says, essentially: “If at least two-thirds of the states pass a similar bill, we will petition the Federal DOT to stop the clock changing.”
You see, it’s only with a huge majority of states moving at the same time that the feds will hear the voice of the people. One state at a time, the feds will always win.
(One note: He’s advocating that Texas stay in Standard Time year round. In Texas, as in Arizona, that might be OK because of the long days and the heat in that state, not to mention that Texas is at the far western edge of the Central Time zone, so it has plenty of light in summer evenings. In most other states the golf and recreation industries will fight to keep states in Daylight Time year-round.)
I wrote to Rep. Frullo and encouraged him to consider carrying a bill following the two-thirds plan. If he can get that signed by the governor of Texas, that will go a long way to getting this plan rolling and may be the quickest way for Texas to actually be able to stop all the clock changing.
(One other side note, if you watch that TV spot, the reporter says that DST started in the early 1900s “to accomodate people working out doors.” Baloney. That was never part of the initial thinking. Germany was the first country to use DST and it was to conserve fuel for WWI. Britain and the US soon followed suit.)
That show will also have two state legislators on. I hope the host will ask them what they think of the two-thirds idea as a way to make progress on this.
If they do, I’ll be sure to report back here and put a link up to that conversation.
Traffic on this blog is picking up for the weekend of the change, so time for a fresh post.
This, of course, is the easy change. Getting a 49-hour weekend is awesome.
In my short piece on CNN, and in my longer piece, I wrote about the health problems associated with the time change in the spring.
I didn’t know until this weekend that there are some serious health problems associated with the time change in the fall, too. According to this (annoyingly paginated) piece from weather.com, the fall time-change is associated with “cluster” headaches, seasonal affective disorder, and more.
All this attention, and a quick look at social media, shows that people are really getting fed up with the time change.
And now we have a new ally in the fight, a state senator from Alabama. According to this story, Sen. Rusty Glover is planning on introducing a bill to put Alabama in year-round Daylight Saving Time.
He won’t succeed, however. The U.S. Government has made it clear it will not approve individual states changing time zones. Arizona and Hawaii are grandfathered in.
So, I’ll be writing to Sen. Glover as soon as I finish this post, and tell him about my plan to fix Alabama, and all the other states as well.
What is that plan?
Here are the steps:
Gather volunteers from around the country who’d like to spend a little bit of time on this.
Encourage students to do experiments during the spring clock-changing to show how hard the clock changing is on all of us.
Encourage those same students, and anyone really, to go to their state legislator and urge those state level representatives and senators to pass a bill. That bill will say that if — and only if — at least 30 other states pass a similar bill, then the state will ask the U.S. Department of Transportation to let it move to make Daylight Saving Time the new standard time for that state. When the DOT gets one application, it shoots it down, but with two thirds of the states…
Once those bills get introduced around the country, we’ll need all of us lobbying our state representatives and senators. (They don’t get lobbied much from regular people, so this will be fun for them.)
That’s the basic plan, but I do need help. If you have any interest in helping, please look at the volunteer job board that I’ve created here. We need lots of volunteers to get this thing moving forward.
I guess the question I have for you is this: You’ve been given an “extra” hour this weekend…. What do you want to do with it? How about working for an hour to get rid of all the crazy clock-changing?
This effort to end all the clock changing is going to get a major boost here as the time change thing happens yet again the first weekend of November.
I’ve got a detailed and thorough plan to get us out of the clock-changing madness, but I can’t do it alone.
Do you want to be able to tell your grandchildren that way back in the olden days the government made us change our clocks for no good reason twice per year, but that you were a part of the movement that ended the silliness? Yes? Then please contact me.
Here’s a short list of what I think we could use right off the bat. If you have some other skill you’d like to offer, please let me know, or just go for it.
Project Management. If you write to me, I’ll send you the plan as it exists now. (We are keeping it under wraps to give an exclusive to a BIG media operation.) The plan is ambitious and requires coordination. We could use one really great person to manage this nationally and then one person in every state other than Arizona and Hawaii, where they already don’t change the clocks twice a year.
Public Relations. At a high level, the strategy is now done for this thing, but as any PR pro knows, the strategy isn’t what makes a success, it’s the work. We could use at least 50, and probably more like 60 or 70 people to help get the word out about this effort in every state and region.
State Lobbyists. We don’t need a lot of lobbying here, we have a secret weapon for that. We could use one good person in each state mostly to keep your ear to the ground and let us know about any opposition to our soon-to-be-revealed plan. If there is, we will be able to counter it, but we just need to know what’s going on.
Federal Lobbyists. Again here we don’t need any hard lobbying, we just need eyes and ears, especially if you have any connections with the Department of Transportation. We do NOT need to lobby the U.S. Congress.
Bloggers. I run a content writing service. I know that lots of great content makes all the difference in the world. If you want to blog on this site, just let me know and we’ll post what you’ve got. If you want to blog on your own site, go for it! We’ll link to it from here.
With all of these positions, there’s no money. There’s only the chance to make the world a better place.
Also there’s some glory. We’ll be very good about highlighting successes and showing what works to everyone, and the world will know that you were a key part of this unlikely, unusual campaign.
I’m no project manager, but I’ve taken some first small steps by creating a project board here. If a real project manager has a better idea, I’m all ears, but it seems like that’s as good a tool as any to keep track of our progress.
So, I ask you… What are you going to do to change the world?
This is the first post on this blog, and I’m using this as a placeholder. Soon this will be replaced with a version of a very long piece regarding the plans to switch us to permanent Daylight Saving Time.
Then, this will be where we’ll post other news, research, and approaches to help us in our quest to stop the clock-changing insanity.
Please send any other blog topics via the contact page. Or better yet send whole blog posts and we’ll post them and give you credit.
