I have, for a very long time now, been anti Daylight Saving Time. It probably started when we lived in Arizona. There is no need to save daylight there because, well, there is nothing but daylight. Its the changing of the clocks that I really hate. Studies have shown that bad things happen in conjunction with the change in time. Im not going to cite anything here, do your own research! This is about my opinion.

We have been back in Michigan for over a decade now. With this comes the very short winter days; just over 9 hours between sunrise, 8:10AM, and sunset 5:11PM, on the winter solstice. On our longest day, the summer solstice, the sun comes up at 6:04AM and sets at 9:45PM. And that is while we observe the DST. Those times would be an hour earlier without it. So, Ive gone back and forth on should we always be DST or never be DST. I sure would like it if it wasnt still light out at 10:00 in the middle of the summer. But I also dont want the sun coming up at 5AM either. Not to mention, in the dead of winter the sun not showing up until after 9. Hours after a large portion of people have to commute to work and school.

So, what do we do going forward? This will be a surprise to noone, but I have a solution. First we need to remember that the idea of time in days, hours, minutes… is a human thing. Nature doesnt care what time we think it is. The sun will raise and set exactly when it wants and it has nothing to do with our clocks. Second, we need to accept that we are no longer in a 9-5 world. Sorry, Dolly. The world is a 24 hour world. Its time we adjusted back to the rhythm of the sun (just listen to the rhythm of my heart) and ditched this antiquated system that was created by railroad owners and candy manufactures. (I told you to do your own research.) So, heres the plan.

We get rid of daylight saving time. But we dont stop there. We also get rid of time zones. Hopefully your head didnt explode. Yes, we get rid of time zones. I propose that it is the same time everywhere. So, right now it would be 6:04 in Michigan, 6:04 in Arizona, 6:04 in Greenwich Village and 6:04 in everywhere that people care about time. This would mean that its the same day everywhere and that changes every 24 hours for the whole planet at the same time. I dont really care what time it is. I only care how the time compares to if the sun is out or not and how that affects my day to day.

So now we are all on the same time. Lets say that the day starts and ends with the international date line. So, noon (12:00) is when the sun is over the pacific and midnight (00:00) is when the sun is over Greenwich Village. (It could be the opposite for all I care, the point is that it doesnt matter. We just need to pick a starting point.) Then each community can determine when they want to start and end their day. Do you want the bank to open shortly after the sun comes up? Then do that. Should schools wait until the sun is up to have kids standing on corners waiting for busses? Perhaps your office wants to end the day sooner so that there is still some day light left after your employees leave. The point is, nothing special happens at 9AM and 5PM so why are we basing our schedules on these arbitrary numbers. Hell, if we want to say that the grocery store opens at wind o’clock and closes at △:30 that would work too. The only thing we need to do is agree.

I could go on and on but Ive been working on this post since Red:13 and its time for me to do something else. If you are a person who has the power to make this happen, please do. Our time system is stupid and needs to be changed.