Letters to the Editor: Why the clocks changing (or not) isn’t worth your anger

To the editor: I was just thinking, and as a very good friend of mine used to say, that’s never good. However, while I am truly impressed that Congress might actually agree on something and make daylight saving time permanent, I do not care one way or another. (“Want permanent daylight saving time? Then you wake up my kids in the dark,” Opinion, March 19)

While the clock changing thing has outlived its initial purpose, I’m retired. I get up when I’ve had enough sleep and hit the sack when I’m ready. What does bother me is how many people are unhappy with the possibility of year-round daylight saving time.

We need to be grateful we have a sun that comes up and goes down every single day and night in our safe and protected homes filled with our loved ones. Perhaps these people do not watch the daily news of the horror enfolding around us.

It should be easy and fulfilling to appreciate not only what we have, but how we can spread the hope. That is always good.

Denise Gee, San Clemente

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To the editor: Editor Paul Thornton did a righteous job publishing letters from the six people in Southern California who oppose year-round daylight saving time.

Like the Senate, the rest of us have been praying for the change starting from the first day of our working lives when we arrived home in the dark.

Ray McKown, Torrance

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To the editor: We don’t have to speculate on the effects of year-round daylight saving time — because we’ve already tried it.

In response to an energy crisis, in 1973 the U.S. government ordered year-round daylight saving time, to begin in January 1974. The first school day in January had children walking to school in the dark. Eight children in Florida were killed in traffic during the first weeks. I was in law school at UCLA, and we were walking in the dark to get to our 8 a.m. classes.

The experiment ended in 1975.

One letter writer suggested that this problem can be avoided by changing school schedules. But if we adjust the schedules of schools and businesses, we lose the whole point of daylight saving time, as we will have the same amount of daylight that we previously had before and after the workday.

Those who are too young to remember the past are doomed to repeat it.

Bruce Janger, Santa Monica