I've been in Indiana for over 15 years now, and every year about this time, I hear the same cry: "We want Daylight Saving Time!"
I originally came from Massachusetts, where they have Daylight Saving Time. And it made sense in Massachusetts.
It seems nearly every year around the time the NCAA Tournament begins, a bill is introduced somewhere in Indiana that would switch part or all of Indiana to Daylight Saving Time. Never is a logical reason given for DST.
I have heard that farmers want it, but many farmers hate DST because it means they have to work under more intense sunlight.
But in order to completely understand DST, you must first look at the roots of this great, wonderful invention.
Daylight Saving Time is, according to Spring Forward by Michael Downing, a way to improve sales at night, because when people get off work at 5 p.m., if it is still bright outside, they are more likely to go shopping.
The problem is, quite simply, that in Indiana, Daylight Saving Time does not make sense. If we were on Eastern Time, it would be light out at 10 p.m. -- which means that the heat of the day would not dissipate until almost 1 a.m. That means that Hoosiers will pay more for air conditioning, and anyone who has an early job will have to invest in some new curtains.
If Indiana adopts Central Time all year, you would find the sun setting unusually early, which would go against the very idea that DST was trying to create.
We need to face the facts: We lie on the border between two time zones, and, as a state, we do not fit in either time zone. Arizona is in the same predicament as Indiana, and they also do the smart thing: They don't change their clocks.
In fact, while Indiana considers jumping on the DST bandwagon nearly 40 years too late, Nevada is considering jumping off. Bob McCleary, a Democrat Assemblyman from Las Vegas, has introduced a bill to exempt the state from DST. While it's unclear if the bill will pass, it is just a sign that DST is not all it's cracked up to be.
Do I expect this to change the way Mitch Dainels and a majority of Hoosiers feel about the time switch? No.
But think about this: I have eight clocks in my one bedroom apartment, one on my car, and I really don't feel like spending an hour changing my clocks after only getting six hours of sleep because I lost an hour overnight.
The problem is, Indiana has a case of envy. It sees cool states like New York, Texas and North Dakota changing their clocks, and, like a 5-year-old, starts chanting, "Me too!" "Me too!"
Apparently, some people, such as the editorial board of the Indianapolis Star, feel that Indiana is hurt economically by not switching our clocks. And, while I agree that a statewide standard should be set, that standard should be to do nothing.
While the argument of logistics for business might have made sense in years past, now my personal computer has "Indiana Standard Time" as an option.
Yes, it's a shame that we fall right on the line between two time zones. But Indiana should not be peer-pressured into changing its clocks.
Write to Will at
wjohargan@bsu.edu
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