The Master Plan to Fix Daylight Saving Time

The Master Plan to Change Daylight Saving Time

First, the good news.  There is a Master Plan.  Without it, the overall effort will not be successful.

Let’s start from the beginning.

A growing body of independent research has shown that time changes adversely affect our health, sleep patterns, children’s focus in school, worker productivity and even worker safety. Earlier sunsets have problems also.  They cause increases in depression (SAD or Winter Blues), traffic accidents and pedestrian fatalities, and higher crime rates due to darker streets in the evening.  Finally, earlier sunsets have a negative impact on the economy, as business activity increases when sunlight stays out longer.

In addition to this research, National Polls have shown that 84% of Americans prefer later sunsets and 74% of Americans preferred to end Daylight Saving Time if the later sunset was used all year-round.

It is this combination of both Independent Research and National Polls that has formulated Our Mission:

The only solution that overcomes all of the side effects from the independent research and meets the desires of the overwhelming majority (74%) of the American people is this: End the process of Daylight Saving Time. No longer change the clocks twice a year. Have one single Standard Time all year long, by not performing the “Fall Back” in the next cycle so that the later daylight hours become permanent. Lastly, allow each State to determine which time zone they wish to belong in.

Same Concept, Different Names

Because some people refer to Daylight Saving Time as the twice a year “Time Change”, and others refer to it as the “Time Period” where the sun sets later in the day, there can be a little bit of confusion about “the name” itself.  While this concept has been called a few different names that all mean the same thing.  For example:

“Ending Daylight Saving Time” means there is no more time changes

“Stopping the Time Changes” means there is no more Daylight Saving Time process

“Year Round Daylight Saving Time” means there is no Daylight Saving Time, there is just one later “Standard Time” all year round.

Whether you call it “Ending DST” or “Year-round DST”, it will require a change in Federal Law.

Change in Federal Law is Required

The Universal Time Act of 1966, amended by the Energy Policy Act of 2005, was the law which set our current time keeping methods for the entire country.  This law formally putting in place the Time Zones across the country, along with the current official pattern changing the clocks twice a year which created Daylight Saving Time.

While this law allows for individual states to “Opt-Out” of Daylight Saving Time, it only allows States to revert back to the earlier sunsets all year round, not the later sunsets.  There is not a provision to Opt-Out and stay with the later time all year round, unless you moved to a different Time Zone.  Therefore, a change in Federal Law will be required.

There is one state that is looking at opting out and moving to a different time zone.  Massachusetts and Maine are currently exploring the possibility off Opting-out of Daylight Saving Time, but at the same time moving into the Atlantic Time Zone so that they accomplish exactly what Our Mission is.  They are the only state able to accomplish this within current law because they have the ability to move to the Atlantic Time Zone and out of the Eastern Time Zone.

With the exception of Massachusetts and Maine, the only way to fix this problem is by introducing a Bill that amends The Universal Time Act off 1966.

Petitions alone just are not enough

We currently have an Online Petition to amend the Universal Time Act of 1966.  But, there have also been other “petitions” for ending Daylight Saving Time in the past.  Even today, there are a handful of Petitions currently through reputable websites such as Change.org or MoveOn.org.  Why have these petitions not succeeded?  It’s pretty simple.

Having a Petition is one thing, but unless they have an organization to see it through, they will not succeed in changing anything.  Most people don’t know this, but there is no law that states the Federal Government has to act on a Petition by the citizens, or even listen to it for that matter.   In a 1984 United States Supreme Court case, the Court confirmed this and ruled that there is not any requirement for Congress to listen to or act upon any Petition submitted by its people.

“Nothing in the First Amendment or in this Court’s case law interpreting it suggests that the rights to speak, associate, and petition require government policymakers to listen or respond to communications of members of the public on public issues.”

Essentially, a Petition in and by itself does nothing.  All it does is prove support.  No lawmaker will Sponsor a Bill to change a law without validation that there is support of the people, so it’s important.  But it is only the first step.

It takes an Organization

At this point, you understand that only a change in Federal Law will meet the goals to overcome the negative side effects of the current law and to meet the desire of the majority of the American people.  Our Mission is clear.  We have to move beyond the Petition to change the law.

Changing a law in the United States of America is an astronomical feat.  A Petition shows the support for an idea.  It doesn’t get the job done.  In order to truly make any change happen, there needs to be a focused plan, dedicated effort and considerable resources to seeing it all the way through.  It is the only way a Law gets changed.

There actually is a formal process to getting a law passed.  Many people don’t fully understand how it all works, as it is a very long and complicated process.  Thank you to Mike Worth and Dr. Suzanne Cooper Guasco, Ph.D. who developed the very nice infographic map of “How our Laws are Made”.

As you can see by that map, a Petition basically lives in the lower left corner of this process.   You need an organization, Coalition building and lobbying efforts to see it all the way through.

The Petitions on Change.org or MoveOn.org will fail because there is no organization behind it.  But that is also the reason why ours will succeed, as we know what it takes and are building the Organization behind the Petition to see it through.

Coalition Building

Now that the Petition is well on its way to being successful, as it is rapidly gaining momentum, the next step is building a Coalition of like-minded Associations and Groups.

To explain how this works, let’s consider a fictional Association called the “Seasonal Affective Disorder Association of America”, who represents 1.4 Million people who suffer from SAD.  Because those people who suffer from SAD would benefit from later sunsets in the winter, it is likely that this Association would join our Coalition.  When we succeed in reaching our goal of 100,000 signatures, that will be dwarfed by the 1.4 Million people that this Association represents.  In combining both “Grass Roots” support through signed Petitions and the memberships of Associations and Groups, then the combined represented support gets into the Millions of people.

Our organization is in the process of developing these Coalitions to build the support across dozens of Associations and Groups where Our Mission aligns with theirs.

Lobbying

Once we have millions of people in support through both “Grass Roots” petitioning efforts and Coalition building, then we can go to Congress to find a Sponsor to draft a Bill to introduce Legislation, or add as an Amendment to other current Legislation, like they did with the Energy Policy Act of 2015.

The lobbying effort will take a considerable amount of time, effort and money to be successful.  Even though we will have a Coalition of Associations and Groups to support and fund this effort, our organization will also have to pitch in financially to support this process.  When we get closer to this time, we will perform a fundraising drive to make sure that this effort is successful.

Summary

In summary, it’s a long road to get an idea with support of the people, into an actual law that Congress votes on and puts into effect.  Success is only obtained in years, not months.  This success takes an organization to see it through, a groundswell of support from the Public (currently in the form of a Petition), a Coalition of like-minded groups (which we are building), and lastly financial resources to work with Washington Lobbyists in order to obtain a Sponsor, introduce Legislation and ultimately a change in the current law.

With your support we will be successful.  Thank you!

About our Founder

All great things start from something small and questioning the status quo.  Our Founder, Anthony Boldin, being a single dad of 2 great kids, an entrepreneur, and aspiring Author and now Activist, did not expect what happened next.

Twice a year, millions of people wonder why we go through this process.  Millions appear to dislike the early sunsets.  Millions appear to suffer from Winter Blues and Seasonal Affective Disorder.  “Why do we do this?” was the question he asked.

From that question and many hours of research later, it became apparent that there are many side effects of our Daylight Saving Time process.  People are suffering unnecessarily.  Lives are being lost.  Billions are being lost.  Even more important, it wasn’t “the way it was always done”.  It is a very modern interjection which wasn’t really in place until the 1960’s, and thus can be changed.

Anthony Boldin has lived by a principle that if you believe in something, you should do something about it, not just talk about it.  Because so many people are being affected, Anthony decided to do something about it.  Starting with this website and Petition drive.

Anthony quickly learned that it takes more than a Petition to garner change.  Instead it takes a full organization and Coalition of like minded groups to see things through.  Boldin is now developing this Organization as quickly as possible to make sure that it accomplishes it’s Mission.

What started off as a small humble idea, with just the desire to have later sunsets to help those affected with Seasonal Affective Disorder, has turned into something truly significant.

Ending Daylight Saving Time may seem overly simple.  You will hear people say “aren’t there are bigger problems to worry about?” While that is true, when we are successful and lives of millions will end up just a little bit better.  Millions of “a little bit better” isn’t such a small thing after all.

Thank you for your support!