Repeal "Daylight Saving Time!"

Or just stay permanently on Central Standard Time. The change kills people.

(Editor’s Note: This is an updated version of a column I did a year ago about the dangerous absurdity called Daylight Saving (not Savings) Time. Children will die because of the time switch, Of course, in the interest of fairness and balance, it will help our farmers produce enough grain to help beat the Germans in World War I. JL)

I don’t know who, when or where yet, but somewhere in this country, at least one child on their way to school will probably be run over and killed by a sleep-deprived driver tomorrow morning, or one who has difficulty seeing in the returning dusk . I know that, because it happens every time we change the time, especially in the spring but also in the fall.

Daylight time is such a modern idea!

Various studies have shown this. Austin Smith, a professor of economics at Miami University in Ohio, studied the social costs of Daylight Saving Time over a ten-year period. He concluded that the time switch resulted in 302 extra deaths over that span. Most were due to sleep deprivation, but not all. A University of Michigan study a decade ago found a 25 percent increase in heart attacks on the day after we lose an hour’s worth of sleep in March. That, by the way, would be tomorrow, the start of the work (and school) week.

Some other studies have found the effects of the time switch to be milder; others, more serious. But there’s virtually no question that it is bad for us.

Many people in Michigan, where I live, still say that they want to keep it because they want an extra hour of daylight in the evening, especially in the summer. Fine. In that case, Michigan should just move to Central Standard Time, permanently. The state is right on the line between EST and CST. But the time switch is what screws us up.

By the way, Donald Trump has said at least once that he wants to get rid of Daylight Saving Time, which one person I knew said was reason enough to want to keep it. That strikes me as asinine. Stopped clocks are right twice a day; that monkey chained to the typewriter could someday write a sonnet, and Trump might actually have gotten something right, though who knows if he really means it.

I also have a personal interest, in that I don’t want my six-year-old grandson Leo to be squished by a semi. Tell your lawmakers, get rid of the crazy time changes already!