Letter to the editor: Daylight saving folly 

– SLO has 14 hours and 28 minutes of daylight on the longest day of the year and 9 hours and 50 minutes on the shortest day of the year. Standard time places noon at the halfway point with an equal number of daylight hours between. Therefore in midwinter, we only have 4 hours and 55 minutes of daylight before noon and the same in the afternoon.

Daylight Saving Time does provide for one more hour of daylight after “noon.” However, it also gives one more hour of darkness in the morning thereby negating the purported benefits of Daylight Saving Time. An additional extra hour of lighting and heating will be needed in the morning, and driving to work, school, etc. will be done in the dark, increasing the danger. President Richard Nixon made Daylight Saving Time permanent in the 1970’s, but it only took a few weeks of early morning accidents for Congress to change the policy.

Current legislation attempting to mandate permanent Daylight Saving Time must be stopped. If we want to avoid the semi-annual ritual of “spring ahead” and “fall back,” then the only logical choice would be permanent Standard Time which would give us an equal amount of hours before noon and afternoon all year long. Those advocating permanent Daylight Saving Time seem to be operating under the delusion that one can cut a foot from one end of a rope and tie it to the other end and end up with a longer rope.

Respectfully submitted,

August Salemi
Atascadero, Calif.

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