There has been an attempt to put a vote to Congress to stop daylight saving time, saying it has “served it’s purpose and is no longer necessary.” Maybe you don’t know why we started this whole playing around with time thing to begin with, so here ya go. I was taught that back in the olden days, farmers didn’t have enough daylight to get their crops harvested and then travel to market, so some genius decided to give us one extra hour of sunlight, and voila, daylight saving time was created. But when I looked it up, I discovered that daylight saving time, or “fast time,” as it was called then — was first introduced in 1918 when President Woodrow Wilson signed it into law to support the war effort during World War I. The initiative was sparked by Robert Garland, a Pittsburgh industrialist who had encountered the idea in the United Kingdom. A passionate campaigner for the use of DST in the United States, he is often called the “father of daylight saving.”

Over 30 farmers were asked if stopping this ancient tradition would cause them any harm. They all said, “Nope, we have lights on our tractors today, we can work all night if need be.” Hawaii and Arizona do not participate in DST and I think we should follow suit. I don’t like it getting dark at 4:30 in the afternoon in the winter. I also don’t like it being light until 10:30 on summer nights, but that’s just me. Should we ban this hour “spring forward fall back” custom or keep it? I say get rid of it and let time be time … in it’s natural state.

Susan Martin

Everett