I really hate the phrase “let’s move on” when used in the context of political debate. It almost always means, “my side won, now shut up.” The Lafayette Journal & Courier tells us to move on from the Daylight Saving Time debate because that debate “should be considered settled.” If there had been anything like a consensus supporting Daylight Saving Time bill in the House of Representatives in 2005, maybe I could agree. But the DST legislation died, by my count, 3 deaths during the course of that session only to be resurrected through various parliamentary tricks each time. And, even on its fourth chance, it only passed because the voting machine was held open while Troy “I’ll Never Vote For It” Woodruff’s arm could be twisted long enough for him to break his promise and cast the 51st and last vote in favor of passage.
Apparently the Journal & Courier thinks thats the sort of vote that settles a debate. Not likely.
[tags]Indiana, Daylight Saving Time, DST, politics[/tags]
It is odd that “let’s move on” isn’t used more often.
For example, I don’t hear that phrase from pro-choice people about pro-life people (in the context of Roe v Wade). They disagree strongly, but the PC people don’t expect the PL people to “just move on”.
Same goes for any number of debates that have had one vote or another that has passed or failed. When something is being debated for years, it isn’t often that either side expects the other to just give up. Why DST?
I`m sure they are ready to move no.I doubt any of the people who work at the Journal & Courier live in one time zone and work in another or have their schedules,appointments or their kids after school activities missed because of this time zone debacle that has been placed on the people of Northwest and Southwest Indiana.
Ask the 3000 Crane employees who live in the Eastern time zone but work in the Central if they think this debate is dumb or all the Toyota employees who work at the Gibson county plant how they`ll like it if the Southwest counties are moved back to Eastern thereby making them a hour off year round if they`ll then think it is time to move on or all the other workers that will then be living in the Eastern time zone but working in one of the six counties that will be on Central in Southwest Indiana if they think it will be time to move on.
What the paper is really saying is moving on is fine since they`re not burdened by this mess!!
Phillip,
From the great northwest, I second your opinion. The Journal and Courier shoiuld ask the 4000 people that travel between LaPorte and St. Joe Counties, what they think. Or the parents of New prairie students. My point if you are not affected by Mitch’s mess , do not comment on whether or not we are ready to move on. Plus, if we are ready to move on to more pressing problems why was a non-pressing problem handled first.
Doug- Don’t overlook another usage of “let’s move on”, which goes, “the spotlight is uncomfortable right now”. That’s my favorite.
Doug, It is time to move on from the DST debate. It should have been dealt with decades ago. Instead, we gave the industrialized world another reason to view Hoosiers as backwater hicks for far too long by refusing to participate in DST. Troy was the sacrificial lamb to the cause. The Dems have their slim majority back because of this issue (and not the toll roads mind you). I simply have never understood people in this state who just don’t get it on this issue. Stop giving people a reason to laugh at us for God’s sakes.
Gary Welsh,
It`s not so much about DST as it is about the reason I mentioned above living in one time zone but working in another.This causes all sorts of problems.Just ask anyone who is presented this problem and most will tell you the same thing that it stinks.There has never been a shred of evidence to suggest DST produces economic prosperity and for that matter Eastern time.
If you want to talk about laughing stock I have a good example for you.What do you think about a group of commissioners from Southwest Indiana counties that went to a DOT hearing in Jasper about this time last year and raised hell,complained,and told Senior Counsel Judy Kaleta of the DOT all their counties Knox,Daviess,Martin,Dubois,Pike and Perry had to be in line with the other five counties in Southwest Indiana already observing Central time and mainly to be in line with Evansville because all the afore mentioned counties were in the same education,workforce developement,and commerce regions( as the five Central time counties)
The DOT finally grants these fools their wish on January 17, 2006 and by the end of May they all wanted switched back mainly due to the Crane employee orginization and the Chamber of Commerce making the same arguments they made at the DOT hearing that Southwest Indiana will become some sort of economic dust bowl on Central time which has proven to be a argument with no basis.I will not go into the numerous signs of economic developement currently going on in Southwest Indiana except for the fact that Kimball International based in Dubois county a big Eastern time advocate has posted earnings of $3.7 million in it`s fiscal first quarter(Central time) compared to over a $6 million dollar loss last year at this time on Eastern Standard time.Time zones have nothing to do with economic prosperity but having a time zone line next to your county causes commuters and families a lot of trouble which could be tolerated when most of the state did not observe DST because the time difference form DST observing counties was only a little over five months a year.
This brings us to Governor Daniels who has so many positions on this subject as documented on this blog one needs a score card to keep track of them.
It seems to me that since the whole state is geographically in the Central time zone and when the Governor was running for office said he believed Central made the most since for the state that this is the time zone the whole state should be in except the three counties in Eastern Indiana that have always observed Eastern Daylight time.Also because the state already had two enclaves of counties in Northwest and Southwest Indiana observing Central Daylight time which the whole state(except the three Eastern Indiana counties) was already in line with almost seven months out of the year anyway year anyway (first Sunday in April to last Sunday in October).Of course since Bait and Switch Mitch is in the pocket of the special interests and the Chamber of Commerce after he was elected only Eastern time would do bringing us to our current mess in the Northwest and Southwest part of the state not to mention the sunrise and sunsets do not work well at all with Daylight Saving time in either time zone for our state.Eastern Standard time with no Daylight Saving time was the perfect compromise to the situation.
People from my District 63 overwhelmingly voted to send Dave Crooks back to Indianapolis in part because Ron Arnold(R) his challenger was seen as a rubber stamp for the Governor and also supported DST and there are a lot of Republicans in this District.Crooks was the only Democrat to win in Daviess county(Both are from Daviess) where he clobbered Arnold.People down here want a soloution to this mess that in my opinion probably will not come and shifting a time zone line will not accomplish anything except making a new group of people mad.
I’ll be the dissenter and chime in that I don’t think this issue is settled. This is Indiana, and Hoosiers are nothing if not stubborn. I fully expect to see the issue of time zones, daylight saving, etc. turn up again as soon as Daniels is out of office if not sooner. Having taken so long to decide about this issue one way or the other, I expect that we’ll take just as long to debate (attempt to change?) the result.
BTW, cool feature that you can see how your comment will appear when published when ou are still typing!
lemming,
I agree with you and considering Hoosiers have been fighting about DST and time zones for decades I see no reason it is going to end anytime soon.
Of course businesses and the Chamber of Commerce wants the debate to end now they have almost everything they want.They have the whole state observing Daylight Saving Time with most of the state observing Eastern time because only Eastern will do for this crowd.
Gary Welsh,
I’ll start believing that people are laughing at Indiana when I hear them laughing louder and harder at India (UTC+5.5), Burma (UTC+6.5), the two central provinces of Australia (UTC+9.5), the Line Islands at UTC+14 — that’s right, 14 — and which are due south of Hawaii (which is at UTC-10), and, finally, the People’s Republic of China, which imposes the completely orthodox time zone of UTC+8 — across its entire geographical width, which is approximately the same as that of the continental United States. Imagine having the same time zone from Portland, Maine to San Francisco. What would THAT do for our precious morning daylight vs. evening darkness arguments?
Until any person who prophesizes such mocking laughter is able to demonstrate any actual comprehension of time zones as applied globally, I will take seriously neither they, nor the ignorant buffoons would actually bother to indulge in such mockery.
The inferiority complex that people have — or claim to have — over this issue is pathetic. There are far more substantive issues to be ashamed of in Indiana, such our abysmal administration of the Medicaid program.
I proudly advocate the repeal of DST in Indiana.