Harmon’s Histories: More daylight! Less electioneering!

By Jim Harmon

It’s Monday, November 4, 2024. I find myself sandwiched between a day I do not like and a day of anxiety.

Yesterday, Daylight Savings Time ended; tomorrow is Election Day.

Today, I must deal with my internal clock. Tomorrow, I must deal with whatever starkly new and different reality faces me.

Let’s start with “time.”

Robert Lamm, one of the three founding members of Chicago Transit Authority (later just “Chicago”), penned my favorite song of the group’s many iconic hits, "Does Anybody Really Know What Time It Is?" The chorus adds, “Does anybody really care?”

Well, I care! I’m a sun worshiper. I never want Daylight Savings Time to go away. In fact, I want every day to be Daylight Savings Day.

Before retirement, I would have enjoyed going to work in the dark and having it remain dark until quitting time, allowing the maximum amount of sunlight for my commute home and time with family and friends.

But wouldn’t you know it? Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health just had to crush that notion.

In an article titled “Seven Things to Know About Daylight Saving Time,” they tell us, “The change has long-term negative consequences for our bodies and minds.” Geez!

“The scientific evidence points to acute increases in adverse health consequences from changing the clocks, including in heart attack and stroke,” according to a sleep expert by the name of Adam Spira.

Spira says the time change is also associated with “a heightened risk of mood disturbances and hospital admissions, as well as elevated production of inflammatory markers in response to stress.” Not only that, but the whole spring-forward thing “raises the risk of fatal traffic accidents by 6%.”

I like the Hawaiian concept of time. Honolulu’s KHON-TV, Channel 2, calls it, “a reflection of a deeper commitment to the well-being of its people and the preservation of its unique way of life; the natural ebb and flow of the sun rather than the man-made constructs of time; a testament to living in harmony with the natural world.”

Statistician Robert G. Schmitt and geologist Doak G. Cox, in their book on "Hawaiian Time,” describe it as “a relaxed indifference to precise scheduling: 8 o'clock concerts start at 8:15, parties planned for 8:30 often begin at 9:30, the 10 o'clock newscast seldom appears before 10:10, and sports events may be televised with a three-hour tape delay.”

The Hawaiian language, they write, “was rich in words referring to the concept of time and its passage. For example, wd (period of time, epoch, era, time, season, age); manawa (time, season, chronology); and au (passage of time, period of time, age, era).” The term “week” was a unit of time introduced by Europeans.

Finally, there are still places on the planet where time zones do not reflect an hourly change but a half-hour change!

In Newfoundland and Labrador, if it’s 5:00 p.m. in St. John's, it’s 5:30 p.m. in Labrador City.

OK, I know, I must now deal with the election.

I’ve cast a lot of ballots in my nearly four score years. In that time I have always voted for candidates, not parties. Yes, I have voted for Republicans, Democrats and Indies, depending on the year and the candidate.

I have always felt elections are important. I am astonished, however, that - so late in my life - this year is far and away the most consequential election - ever!

I am even more astonished that anyone - I mean anyone - could, at this late date, be “undecided.” With such a field of candidates arrayed before us, each so different, how is it conceivable anyone has not made a choice?

For the first time in my life, Baby Boomers, Generation Y (Millennials - the Boomers’ kids) and Gen Z (the Boomers’ grand-kids) all seem to be well informed and planning to vote. Good for you!

Personally, it’s been a horribly long wait. I cast my absentee ballot shortly after its arrival in the mail.

So for those campaigns spending millions of dollars on all this last-minute TV and mail advertising ($250 million-plus, in the U.S. Senate race alone) - it’s been a waste of money to me.

But as a retired journalist, I do see one very positive thing that could stem from all this spending.

Attention corporate media owners and private equity investors: How about using a goodly percentage of that windfall profit on journalists? Increase their numbers. Pay them decent salaries. Give them hefty bonuses for their tireless work.

Yes, I know - fat chance of that happening.

So if you don’t mind, I’ll now snuggle into my nice warm cave for the winter. Don’t worry, I’ll set an alarm for the same time next week, to make a brief reappearance.

Nighty Night.

Jim Harmon is a longtime Missoula news broadcaster, now retired, who writes a weekly history column for Missoula Current. You can contact Jim at fuzzyfossil187@gmail.com. His best-selling book, “The Sneakin’est Man That Ever Was,” a collection of 46 vignettes of Western Montana history, is available at harmonshistories.com.