What happened to government making sense? Daylight savings really saving fossil fuels? Isn't there a better way?

Two years ago, Congress decided to change Daylight Savings time by pushing it back a few weeks. I’m sure it seemed like it made a lot of sense at the time. However, as it often does, just because it seemed like a great idea then doesn’t mean that it should be done. I really think that the members of Congress forgot to research what the change might do to the world of technology we currently live in. The past few weeks have been filled with a little bit of the same panic that many people felt over Y2K, and how that change was going to affect the technology we depend on in our daily lives.

Luckily, the change came and went without an apparent issue. I was able to reset my computer’s clock manually, and the change stuck, and both my cell phone and the cable-box on top of my television changed right at 2 a.m. Now, there’s only one clock left to change. My body’s clock is completely thrown off. I think that today’s day and night cycles are different than what it would have been next month, and because the nights are so much longer at this time than they are in April, the change is going to be a lot harder on many people. Also, I don’t understand why the federal government didn’t see fit to change the day of the week that the savings time happened. When it changes early Sunday morning, no one has time to get used to the change before having to go back to work or school on Monday morning. I don’t see why they couldn’t have put it to early Saturday morning, so that people would have time to adjust to the change before having to go back to work or school.

Also, this change makes life difficult for those of us who take medications at very specific times. I have medication that if I don’t take it right on time, my pain picks up a lot, along with feeling just plain horrid. Unfortunately, it’s hard trying to get my schedule aligned with the hours of the day. For example, tonight, I am having a hard time trying to figure out what time I should take my medication. I usually take them at 10 a.m. and p.m., so now I have to take them at 11, but to do that since I took my medication last night at the right time, and this morning at the wrong time, means I have to work my body into the new times. It’s just plain strange!

One of the supposed reasons for this change was to save some of the burning of fossil fuels. However, as one of the world’s largest producers of pollution that contributes to global warming, and the majority of that pollution comes from the burning of fossil fuels, I really don’t think that 3 weeks or a month is going to make much of a difference. If they wanted to help try to stave off some of the negative effects of global warming, the government first must be lead by someone who actually believes that global warming is at least real, let alone a very pressing issue. Then, the government needs to devote more time to solving the problems in our country that are contributing to global warming and just adding to the threat. I’m sure the time the federal government spent discussing whether or not to change the date for daylight savings time would have been much more productive if it were spent on trying to figure out a way for the United States to both reduce our dependency on foreign oil without destroying our wildlife preserves that hold endangered species, and to try to find alternatives to oil and the burning of fossil fuels so that we can at least start trying to make a difference in the amount of pollutants that enter the atmosphere.

It’s a shame that our government continually tries to make shortcuts and go around actually dealing with an issue. To them, it’s better to just throw a patch over the hole in the administration that allows wounded and disabled veterans to return from an increasingly violent occupation of a country that doesn’t want us there and get sent to a hospital where the care is worse than what they got in the field hospital that sent them there. To them, it’s better to spoil a national park that was created to help make sure humans don’t kill off many more species than to find another way to fuel our cars, homes, and an unpopular war. To them, it’s better to change the date for daylight savings time than try to find another way to save some fossil fuels. Let’s just throw a patch over the holes in their reasoning and then let the next administration figure it out, along with hoping that it doesn’t tip the scales and lead to a much overdue impeachment hearing.