Let’s not fall backwards anymore

So I have a brilliant idea on how to unite the country. Well, two really.

This column will focus on the most important...the dreaded fall back!

I don’t know if it means I’m for daylight saving or against daylight saving (that’s more confusing than background checks for gun owners).

All I know is that I ate dinner the other night at 5 p.m. because it was dark out! I’m not over 65 and it wasn’t the Old Country Buffet so that should never happen, yet because it was pitch black my body screamed, “you haven't had dinner yet, and it's almost bedtime!” And in case you’re wondering I was in bed by 8!

Now I know some of you may say, “but it’s light out at 6 a.m., that’s so peaceful!” But for me personally, and I think most people, it’s more advantageous to stay light out longer in the evenings.

Even if you work a 9-5 you’re likely getting kids ready for school and doing chores so morning light isn’t nearly as useful as afternoon light during which you may want to grab a quick run after work or walk your puppy with rays of sun still shining. (Of course you may be one of those exercise before work freaks who I think are alien to begin with.)

Getting dark early extends nighttime activities, which for me means more time to read and sleep. I’m not sure that’s in the best interest of my health. 

And if you’re increasing your overall binge watching TV time I doubt the average M.D. would say that's a good thing.

So why do we continue this? It’s archaic, an idea from 1918 to conserve energy...um we are now driving semis and trucks across the country every nanosecond and flying planes every minute so the energy savings of this hour confounds me.

It became an official law in the 60s (likely a stoner idea). I’s unclear whether Germany or Canada was the first country to use this dumb system, but both of these are metric using countries and we’ve been just fine not adopting that system! 

States like Massachusetts want to get rid of it but need the other New England states to sign on before switching to Atlantic time. (Yes, let’s add another time zone to further not complicate things!)

Some states like Arizona and parts of Indiana don’t switch (again not sure if they don’t fall back or don’t spring forward).

And in case you’re wondering, other countries do this dumb time switch thing too...at least they do in England where I almost missed a plane because of it (or was I an hour too early?)

So, to summarize, forget where we stand on gun control, abortion, civil rights or healthcare. Let’s unite ’Merica by repealing the time change.

And the penny, but I’ll leave that for a separate column!