The Marion Chronicle Tribune had a time zone editorial yesterday. They suggest that the legislature’s recent action concerning Daylight Saving Time didn’t solve the indecision, bickering, and confusion about Indiana’s time. Nevermind the premise which ignores the possibility that things worked well enough how they were. The paper is correct that the legislature’s actions have made things worse.
Unfortunately, the editorial goes on to make an extremely questionable assertion without bothering to provide anything resembling an explanation.
Now, according to news reports, 19 counties have asked to join the 10 counties already on Central time, meaning 63 counties would be on Eastern time while 29 – almost twice as many as before – would be on Central.
The phrase “patchwork quilt” has been used to describe the plan, and it is fitting.
As much of Indiana as possible should be on the same time, and it appears Eastern Time is preferable.
Gov. Mitch Daniels probably went into this whole thing thinking it would end confusion. It doesn’t appear that’s happening. To prevent more of a kerfuffle, Daniels should exert his leadership more than he has on this issue.
He could work on county officials to persuade or convince them to drop their Central time requests.
“It appears Eastern Time is preferable.” Why? I know others have made arguments. Some are even valid. But the Marion Chronicle Tribune feels no need to explain itself. “The Chronicle Tribune said it. I believe it. That settles it. Apparently, that’s how a discerning reader is supposed to react.” Whoever the editorial writer is appears to have absolutely no recognition that the western part of the state exists except insofar as he or she feels it necessary to have Governor Daniels impose his or her time zone preference on the rest of the state.
I tend to think the whole state should be in one time zone. I tend to think that Central Time is the better time zone. The fact is that currently for about 7 months out of the year, the entire state — except for those few counties that currently observe Eastern Daylight Time illegally — is already on Central Daylight Time (functionally if not technically). But I’m not oblivious to the arguments on behalf of Eastern Daylight Time.
Update – Just reading through some recent docket entries, I see the Juday Creek Golf Course (pdf) was kind enough to provide the USDOT with “the accurate unbiased facts as they relate to St. Joseph County Indiana.” Very decent of them. But, it seems to me, if a golf course owner is unbiased, then she is an idiot. Of course a golf course owner should want Eastern Daylight Time. It gives them an extra hour of golf. Be biased. Go for the money. And, of course she is. She wants EDT. But the claim that she isn’t biased is laughable.
[…] Meanwhile, we have a chorus of “we got what we wanted, so shut up now” from the eastern parts of the state. One of the voices is an editorial from the Fort Wayne Journal Gazette. But, not surprisingly, the most disingenuous voice seems to be the editorial from the Marion Chronicle Tribune. Their headline gives away the problem with their reasoning, “After decades of arguing, it’s time to move on.” Why wasn’t it time to move on last year or the year before or the year before that? Because the folks at the Marion Chronicle editorial board hadn’t gotten what they wanted: Eastern Daylight Time. Why is it time to move on now? Because they got what they wanted. So could the rest of us please shut up now? (My comments in italics) Already, some Hoosier legislators want a statewide referendum on the time zone issue. […]