What if we all just said “No”?

The Folly of Daylight Saving Time...

Are you feeling powerless? Feeling like the world goes on with or without you? As if you have no say in things that impact your life? Well, on Sunday morning if you don’t buy the clap trap that setting your clocks forward an hour will actually save energy rather than just bump up the sales of golf balls and barbeques, then you just might be able to change that. We all know that the retailers across the country are salivating at the prospect of more shopping in the after-work evenings. What would happen if we all just refused to change our clocks? We show up at work at standard time rather than daylight saving time – what would happen? We could start a revolution, one that would appeal to just about everybody (from Progressives to Libertarians to Conservatives – I don’t care what the Fundamentalist Evangelicals think – they drive me crazier than this goddamned administration does.) We all know that we are being played as chumps, as fools who will swallow any thing that is offered in a combo meal. We all know that it is a scam, that getting up an hour earlier doesn’t save energy. In fact, it has been demonstrated that we, as shopping-crazed Americans, will actually use more energy in the form of gasoline, driving our vehicles (SUVs, Hummers, Pick-up Trucks, etc.) to the neighborhood Dairy Barn or shopping mall than we would ever save by staying home and turning into bed an hour earlier.

I think that we have the makings of a real movement here. Think about it – we could send a message to the government rather than the government shoving yet another stupid idea down our throats. We could control at least one aspect of our lives. We have the power to do this, people. And if we can do this, refuse to change our clocks on Sunday morning, just think of what we could do on Sunday afternoon: we could step outside and meet our neighbors and ask them what they think of the government, and what their thoughts are on the war in Iraq, and whether we should consider starting another war in Iran, and inquire how well they are making ends meet. We could find out whether they are able to send their kids to college, what they think of gas prices, on and on and on… It’s just a thought, but I, for one, am sick and tired of being pushed around by an administration that couldn’t balance my checkbook, that has me (and many, many generations that will follow me) so far in hock to China that if the country were me, it couldn’t sit down and take one bite of dinner without having to jump up every couple of seconds to answer a phone call from a creditor. What do you say, folks? Do we have the gumption to take back our country, our lives, our pocket books, our alarm clocks? I really do think it could all start by not setting your clock ahead on Sunday morning, who’s with me on this?

Spring Forward: The Annual Madness of Daylight Saving Time