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Rep. Kaiser Sick of Daylight Savings Time

It would be fun to have Rep. Dan Kaiser as my Representative. His seven bills provide all sorts of fun blog discussion!

Worth mentioning is Rep. Kaiser's House Bill 1127, which would exempt South Dakota from Daylight Savings Time. Alas, the wording appears a bit confused as to just where it wants to lock in the clocks:

Notwithstanding any other provision of law to the contrary by the United States relating to the adoption of daylight savings time by all of the states, the state of South Dakota elects to reject daylight savings time and elects to continue use in force standard time, or summer hours [House Bill 1127, original text, posted 2015.01.27].

Correct me if I'm reading something wrong here, but Daylight Savings Time is the clock we use in the summer (and the first half of fall, the last couple weeks of winter, and all of spring). Standard Time is what we're doing right now. If South Dakota rejects Daylight Savings Time, it rejects "summer hours." The language of this bill contradicts itself.

If the intent of this bill is to reject Daylight Savings Time and keep "winter hours," we face an interesting timing question. We switch to Daylight Savings Time this year on March 8. With no emergency clause appended, HB 1127 would take effect on July 1, which is a Wednesday. HB 1127 would thus have us set our clocks back across South Dakota in the middle of a workweek, which I'm sure would wreak all sorts of mirthful chaos at the office. With everyone's work and sleep schedule mixed up, we should just call a five-day weekend for the Fourth of July and let everyone get rested. (Oh! Bonus to HB 1127: fireworks displays could start an hour earlier for the kids!)

I have mixed feelings on Daylight Savings Time. I love the later sunsets it brings us. Sunshine past nine p.m. East River fills me with bliss. But I appreciate rolling out of bed and blogging by the glorious dawn light of Standard Time instead of the delayed sunrises of Daylight Savings. We just can't have it all....

Of course, if we really want to get fundamentalist about time, maybe we should amend HB 1127 to adopt Mountain Time statewide. The brief confusion caused by switching our clocks back or forth an hour twice a year is nothing compared to the daily confusion for folks doing business statewide keeping straight Central and Mountain Time. Time zones should center around meridians so that solar noon (the time when the sun is highest in the sky) as 12:00 p.m. In Madison, high noon comes around 12:45 p.m. Standard Time and 1:45 p.m. Daylight Savings Time. In Pierre, high noon comes at 12:54 p.m. Standard; in summertime, solar noon is almost tea time. If we unify South Dakota under Mountain Time, noon will be closer to noon, and we will bring East River and West River together, two clocks, finally ticking as one.

When do you prefer your sun? Should we keep fiddling with our clocks? I'm eager for the discussion of Daylight Savings Time here and in House State Affairs.

58 Comments

  1. MC 2015.01.29

    We have become a 24/7/365 soceity. I can call just about any company at any time get done what needs to get done. The time showing on the clock is just the time. The idea of mornings and evenings are almost lost. We now have daylight and darkness hours.

    Pick a time zone (GMT, CST, whatever) and stick to it.

    Problem solved! next.

  2. CLCJM 2015.01.29

    I like the long evenings, too. My understanding is that originally DLST was supposed to save electricity but last I heard, there was no evidence that it does.Anyone know if there has been any studies of that?

  3. Bill Fleming 2015.01.29

    As long as we can have time go any way we want to in our state, can we get rid of Thursdays and have two Saturdays instead? I don't need more daylight, I need more weekend.

  4. caheidelberger Post author | 2015.01.29

    Saturday Savings Time—executive thinking, Bill! Or how about we set the clock ahead five hours at noon on Friday, so everyone goes home early, after just a half-day at the office, then set it five hours back Sunday at 2 a.m. to let everyone sleep off Saturday night?

  5. larry kurtz 2015.01.29

    daylight saving (no s) time.

  6. Craig 2015.01.29

    Daylight Savings Time is a stupid, stupid idea. Arizona (and Hawaii I believe) have it right... just keep the clocks set at one time year round. DST has never been shown to conserve energy, and by most accounts the logistical nightmares caused by shifting time results in a substantial amount of lost productivity each year.

    This is one of those issues which should have been resolved by our Congress years ago... but as with most things these days, if you want it done you have to do it yourself (at the state level).

    Now perhaps Rep. Kaiser can draft a bill that converts South Dakota to the metric system.

  7. Bill Fleming 2015.01.29

    Would that make New Mexico more progressive, Larry. ;-) The more I think of it, the more I like the way it was in the really old days, when every town had its own time. They actually do, you know, it's just that hardly anyone ever notices it much any more. Maybe we have two systems: off- clock, and on-clock. Use the former when you're okay with nature telling you what time it is, and the latter, when you have to interface with obsessively time-sensitive human beings and their machines. :-)

  8. Bill Fleming 2015.01.29

    Cory, we're on the same page here. Let's get those bills written, buddy.

  9. Sad Aberdonian 2015.01.29

    The quality of Aberdeen area legislators has taken a steep dive. Many great men and women from both parties have served from the area well including guys with the name Barnett, Cutler, Wood, Schaunaman, Herseth, Taylor, Dennertt, and Waltman...and a woman named Lamont.

    All left a meaningful mark on our state. They knew how to work together to get things done. I don't recall ever picking up the Aberdeen American News to see these statesmen introducing these frivolous kinds of bills. I am fairly confident that they never quoted the Communist Manifesto during a committee hearing on early childhood education.

    Aberdeen you are not being represented by this guy. He is nothing but an Onion article in the making. There are many good men an women for both parties who would better serve the community. I hope that in the 2016 election that Aberdeen returns its days of electing statesmen and stateswoman...whether they be Republican or Democrat. You can do better.

  10. Curt 2015.01.29

    Larry K -
    Thank(s) you for pointing out the common mis-usage ... kinda surprised Cory let that one slip.

  11. Troy 2015.01.29

    General Comments:

    1) Mike is right. DST seems to be a positive with regard to accidents (where the sun is on drive home or to work).

    2) If I could only have one, I'd prefer DST because of the time it gives me on deck in summer.

    3) Growing up in Pierre, having two time zones is no big deal. RC and area look generally to Denver. SF and I-29 corridor look to MPLS. I think this is good.

    4) Since most of the nation switches, we can consistently know what the time is somewhere else. Going off the norm seems to complicate things beyond any benefit (at least presented so far).

  12. Troy 2015.01.29

    Regarding DST saving energy: I have been told it has a positive impact in the northern climates during winter with lessening impact as one moves south and marginal if any impact in summer. Don't know if this is factual but it seems intuitively true (which doesn't necessarily make it so).

  13. mhs 2015.01.29

    These bills have to be coming from somewhere, ALEC? MN just introduced one to go to daylight all year long- whic has to be a response to somebody else's model legislation.

    Having lived in AZ where daylight isn't used, it's a pain in the rear. All you do is figure out what time it is relative to everywhere else.

    Interestingly, everybody thinks the AZ no-DST law was based on the logical assumption that when it's damn hot in the afternoon, why have it last later? Turns out the origins of the law are far murkier, including a strong anti-Washington type and a strong environmentalist acting together as original sponsors. Fun political history with no real idea why it actually happened.

  14. larry kurtz 2015.01.29

    Women should be forced to wait 72 hours and attend sessions at state-sanctioned Time Counseling Centers efore their clocks can be changed.

  15. TJ 2015.01.29

    How about West River change their clocks to DST and East River leave theirs alone. Then half the year SD would all be the same time.

  16. MC 2015.01.29

    We could just scrap the whole idea. Go to a 26 hour day (24.25 of our current time) Rename the days of the week, maybe go to a 10 day week, and 4 month calendar year

  17. Loren 2015.01.29

    I DON'T CARE! I am with those that think we should just pick one and stick with it! The idea of falling ahead and turning back and changing the month/day, when, if, ...! Fercryinoutloud! Get a grip, folks! :-)

  18. MC 2015.01.29

    We could just scrap the whole idea. Go to a 26 hour day (24.25 of our current time) Rename the days of the week, maybe go to a 10 day week, and 4 month calendar year

  19. CLCJM 2015.01.29

    I figured this would be an, uh...interesting conversation but I didn't count on the amount of laughs this would produce, some intentional, some not. Ok, I've had my first big laugh of I the day. Thanks everyone for both the serious and humorous answers!

  20. MC 2015.01.29

    My Sarcasm tags did post. My last post were sarcasm

  21. CLCJM 2015.01.29

    Steve H., I just looked at your link that you connect with the anti-Christ. My understanding of the Scriptures doesn't qualify me to make that connection. However, what I did note in the link was that there were 19 different translations of the Bible given! And, I suspect that there are probably many more. No wonder people get confused! How would any ordinary person or even a Biblical scholar determine which is correct? Amazing!

  22. mikeyc, that's me! 2015.01.29

    Larry K for State Representative!
    Too funny.

  23. larry kurtz 2015.01.29

    mikeyc, if men could lactate chocolate milk would be a sacrament.

  24. Jim 2015.01.29

    There's been some talk at the national level to get rid of two time zones. Eastern and Central would be combined and Mountain and Pacific would be combined. DST would be eliminated at the same time. The boundaries might shift a little as well. Instead of four times zones worth of confusion and DST and ST, there'd be just two times year-round. Microsoft, Apple and Google would have to push out software patches so all the electronics would keep time correctly. They did that a few years ago when DST was lengthened. Of course, South Dakota would straddle the two time zones and there'd still be confusion.

  25. Roger Cornelius 2015.01.29

    Old Indian saying:

    "Only a white man would cut the top off the blanket and sew it to the bottom to make the blanket longer".

  26. El Rayo X 2015.01.29

    Roger, a young Indian once told me "Time is just a Swiss conspiracy to rule the world."

  27. Deb Geelsdottir 2015.01.29

    Larry said, "Women should be forced to wait 72 hours and attend sessions at state-sanctioned Time Counseling Centers before their clocks can be changed."

    . . . and . . .
    "if men could lactate chocolate milk would be a sacrament."

    Roger quoted, "Only a white man would cut the top off the blanket and sew it to the bottom to make the blanket longer".

    Deb said, "Hahahahahahahaha!!! Hahahahahahahaha!!!!!

  28. Bob Newland 2015.01.29

    And Newland said, "Only a legislator would attempt to mitigate the damage done by folks using 'drugs' by creating a price support system for the purveyors of psychotropic substances."

  29. Joan Brown 2015.01.29

    My guess is that it DST probably did save energy back in the day when people didn't have TV and other electronic gadgets. I prefer DST and wish it would stay that way all year, because I really like the longer hours of daylight in the summer. It isn't that I am able to go anyplace, I just like to be able to see what is going on outside. I really hate having to change clocks, but lets leave it at DST and maybe all year.

  30. Kate 2015.01.29

    It's better than most gop proposed laws that would turn our clocks back to 1950.

  31. Roger Cornelius 2015.01.29

    Yeah Kate! A great observation

  32. Deb Geelsdottir 2015.01.29

    And the Winner is --------

    --------KATE!!!!!!!

  33. GARY 2015.01.29

    All the kids in the marching band are out of step. (Except mine)!!

  34. Craig 2015.01.30

    Roger: "Old Indian saying:

    "Only a white man would cut the top off the blanket and sew it to the bottom to make the blanket longer"."

    For someone so sensitive about racism in our state, I'm surprised you resort to racist jokes. Or does it not apply when it references a white man?

  35. larry kurtz 2015.01.30

    South Dakota was founded on racism and continues to implement institutionalized genocide.

  36. Roger Cornelius 2015.01.30

    Craig,

    Maybe, just maybe, the saying is not a joke at all

  37. PlanningStudent 2015.01.30

    Joke or not, still racist. The implication is that cutting and sewing the blanket in such a way is stupid.. And that only white ppl would do such a stupid thing. F*cking racist...

  38. PlanningStudent 2015.01.30

    Larry K is clearly part of the racist heritage of our state..

  39. larry kurtz 2015.01.30

    PS: diaf.

  40. Roger Cornelius 2015.01.30

    Larry,
    Here is another old Indian saying:

    Republicans don't have a funny bone.

  41. Bill Fleming 2015.01.30

    I don't think Roger's quote is racist, I think it's a perfectly apt metaphor and a nice cross-cultural companion to the topic of this thread.

    I actually mentioned something similar earlier when I suggested:

    "Maybe we have two systems: off-clock, and on-clock. Use the former when you're okay with nature telling you what time it is, and the latter, when you have to interface with obsessively time-sensitive human beings and their machines. "

    My thought when I read Roger's comment was that perhaps he was saying the same thing "the Indian way." And I'll be the first to admit, his way of saying it is far easier to understand than mine was.

    From nature's point of view, the day is exactly as long as it's going to be that day, no matter how one artificially (and imperfectly) measures it.

    When an elder points up our collective foolishness, we should take the lesson, regardless of the ethnicity of the elder.

    Point being, it could just as well have been a farmer who said it to a city slicker, or a poor person to a rich one, and I would not have been a bigot to repeat it.

  42. larry kurtz 2015.01.30

    Roger, the GOP is notoriously opprobrious and infamous for being crybabies.

  43. Dicta 2015.01.30

    Sure is fun making all these generalizations about each other. Super productive thread we got ourselves here.

  44. Dicta 2015.01.30

    SOMETHING SOMETHING YOUR GENERAL TRAITS OF CHARACTER BECAUSE OF YOUR POLITICAL AFFILIATION SOMETHING SOMETHING DUBYA SOMETHING OBAMA.

    Some AMAZING discourse.

  45. larry kurtz 2015.01.30

    Now it's clear: the GOP wants to end Daylight Saving Time so white Republicans go to bed earlier and breed more Republicans.

  46. Troy 2015.01.30

    I'm with Bill. This wasn't racist but it was cultural. Indians have a different concept culturally of time and its importance. I read Roger's comment about this issue to be effectively "You guys worry about stuff that isn't that important" and an element of "I don't care much what you do either way on this issue as its not going to affect me either way."

    Growing up near the river and spending a lot of time on the Cheyenne, you kinda learn to incorporate "Indian time" into things and not get upset with it. Its kinda like being around French-Canadians and just letting them kiss your cheeks coming and going even though you don't like people in your space.

    Granted sometimes I've experienced Indians who used IT to pimp me, but mostly I've experienced it in a way it was a sign of respect reminding me smelling the roses is important.

    Roger's quote reminded me of once in Pierre with my staff and our Indian Economic Director planning a meeting on the Pine Ridge. Before Steve left to set up the meeting, I told him "Make sure they know we are on White Man's time. I have to leave at (the designated time) no matter what. "

    My staff was aghast and said I couldn't/shouldn't have said that. I said BS. I'm not imposing WMT because I don't respect Indian Time. My schedule demands this time they respect my time constraints.

    Later when Steve came back to tell me we were set, I called the two people who thought I was being offensive and asked Steve direct if I offended him. He laughed and said not a bit.

    Mutual respect requires understanding, accommodation and honest talk.

    Speaking of Indian sayings, Roger I've always heard the "riding a dead horse" phrase comes from this Sioux saying "When you find yourself riding a dead horse, dismount." True?

  47. larry kurtz 2015.01.30

    thank you doctor sociology.

  48. Jenny 2015.01.30

    ROFL, oh Larry! That is exactly why the Catholics and Muslims are against birth control - produce as many little Catholics and little Muslims as you can. Populate the world.
    I have heard in 50 years that SD will become 50% Native American and Hispanic. It's coming 'pubs, there will come a time when the one party system you have going will fall.

  49. Jenny 2015.01.30

    When I worked at the Pierre hospital, the "good Christian" white people that worked there would call the Native American moms coming in to have their babies "Reservation Specials". I'm not kidding. This wasn't directed right at the women, but they were being sarcastic of the complications pregnant Native women sometimes have such as late prenatal care, alcohol, hypertension. All the so-called prolife people who are against insuring the state's poorest but yet say they are pro baby are the hypocrites here. Instead of trying to save those babies, I saw in one instance a medicaid mom discharged just a a day after having a Cesarean. These same 'pubs are against needed Federal tax dollars to put the state's poorest on Medicaid.

  50. Jenny 2015.01.30

    I also saw instances of Native American men documented where they were beat up by Pierre police. This is credible since it sure sounds like it has been routine in Rapid City if you are homeless.

  51. Roger Cornelius 2015.01.30

    Troy,
    True, a dead horse will get you nowhere, we should all be able to figure that out.
    You have touched on a subject that very many non-Indians fail to understand and that is Indian humor. It is difficult for some to understand and just as difficult to explain.
    "Indian time", as described to me by tribal elders wasn't always a joke among us, it was a distinction in how we lived our lives. The four seasons were critical to Native survival and they were strict about hunting seasons, harvesting season, and all the preparations that had to be made.
    When our eco-system was destroyed we had to reluctantly accept the white time. It later became an act of defiance, white men are not going to tell us what to when to do it, hence the term "Indian time".
    Making white people wait was once a way of controlling a meeting or situations.
    Personally I spent most of my career in the private sector where deadlines mean dollars and as a result have become a time freak. Fellow tribal understood and tolerated me.

  52. Troy 2015.01.30

    RC,

    After awhile us white guys learns when Indian Time is used to pimp or as you said be defiant and when it is just putting things in proper order.

    I remember the first time I "got it" in a deeper way. I was mid-teens working on my uncle's farm. An Indian from across the river responded to one of those ads in a farm flyer for a ditch mower for sale. My uncles told me to meet the guy, not take less than a certain amount, and if I made the sale I got $50 (which was huge in 1975 or so).

    When he was fifteen minutes late, I was worried he changed his mind (no cell phones back then) and I was out my $50. After awhile, I didn't know if I should keep waiting or what. I was going to town for Saturday night and this was taking time away from driving up and down the streets of Gettysburg. Pretty important! When he drove into the yard, I was peeved but held my emotions because I wanted the $50.

    Anyway, instead of apologizing for being late, he talked about what a great drive he had, what he saw and almost seemed more grateful for the drive than getting a good deal on the mower. It softened my being peeved. He was a gentle man you couldn't help but like.

    He asked if he could hook up the old Oliver tractor I had used to pull it into the yard and try it out. We did that, he asked me to get on with him while he did a little mowing, we loaded it on his trailer, he gave me the price asked in cash, and then asked if I'd throw in the box of sickles in the tool box on the tractor.

    For some reason (he had already paid), even though the sickles would work on the newer mower, I threw them in. Still don't know why I did it. Anyway, he then got his water jug out of his pickup, emptied the water, went over to the spigot and filled it up, and sat on the edge of trailer and we talked. About what or for how long, I can't recall.

    My point: I started out being peeved about Indian Time. But, even though I had $50 in my pocket and had planned on going to town to spend it, I was now enjoying being on Indian Time. Whether this old Indian (old to a 15 year old) intended or not to teach me something, he did. Indian Time is sometimes irritating and sometimes it is a blessing. But for the $50, I'd have probably missed the lesson and I've gotten a lot of return from that $50 in the past 40 years.

    Sidenote: Don't know why I remember this either. He had busted up fingers on one hand and had a distinctive way of rubbing the side of his nose when he talked.

  53. larry kurtz 2015.01.30

    Exactly, Jenny: if we don't control our own food and reproduction white Republicans will.

    Democrats = safe; Republicans = cheap.

  54. Deb Geelsdottir 2015.01.30

    Good story Troy.

    In my experience in northwestern SD, on summer days rancher time is pretty similar to Indian time. I think that's where the romantic creativity comes from. Riding cattle or mowing hay usually doesn't occupy the mind. One can think, day dream, wonder, imagine. It's great.

    That's one of the reasons I really enjoyed field work. The old WD Allis, the clicking of the rake, the lumpy windrows of alfalfa trailing behind, singing meadowlarks. Ahhhh.

  55. Les 2015.01.31

    I often feel RC pulls the race card too quickly but not in this case. That we change the clocks and feels accomplishment only leads me to believe "they?" point right and the sheep move right and point left and the sheep move left....while my native brother just shakes his head and smiles.

    I was taught by some of the greatest Indian Cowboys of the west. Real Cowboys: eat burnt toast, don't cry, play rummy, bareback cutting cattle with only reigns in a hand, always finish the job even if it took many days, and, when they'd ask mother for sugar, yeast and flour, we weren't always going to come up with bread.

    One that comes to mind for me every fall while I'm out cutting. It's gonna be a bad winter, white man cut a lotta wood. Brings back great memories every time.

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