Why Do We Still Have Daylight Saving Time?

While it was nice to get an extra hour of sleep Saturday night, it will be less pleasant to have it be pitch black on my ride home from work Monday.

But, because of the annual "Fall back," part of Daylight Saving Time when we set clocks back an hour making it lighter in the morning and darker earlier in the evening, that is exactly what I will experience.

This system, which was created when most people were farmers and presumably needed to work from sunrise to sunset, has outlived its usefulness. Very few Americans need dawn to break at six a.m.

while the sun sets as some kids are still getting home from school.

Technically, the annual Fall clock switch puts us back on normal time, but since how we set our clocks is entirely arbitrary it makes sense to operate on a system that keeps it light through the evening commute.

If we hadn't "fallen back," then the sunset would be around the end of most people's workday.

Kids would be able to practice fall sports without lights, take buses home from school while its light out and all they would be giving up is that for some it would not be full light as they leave in the morning.

Retail stores would also benefit from extra light during hours when people are actually awake.

Mostly though we need a system where the clock is the clock year-round. Sure it's nice to get an extra hour once a year, but it's awful to lose one when it's time to "Spring forward."

Holding on to Daylight Saving when it benefits nobody and may actually cause some harm is utterly foolish. We no longer close school on the first day of the harvest nor do we get up when the rooster crows because the sun is rising.

Keeping this silly tradition is the equivalent to buying saddles despite not riding horses any more. It's churning your own butter when there are five supermarkets and 12 convenience stores within a quick ride.

The time for Daylight Saving has come and gone. It's time to stop falling back and springing forward and pick a clock that works year-round.