Letter: Annual time change costs Hoosiers millions of dollars

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To the editor:

Just as signs of spring were arriving and morning sunlight was greeting us once more, on March 11, Hoosiers living in Indiana’s 80 Eastern Time counties were plunged back into dark mornings. Not so for Central Time Hoosiers, where sunlight arrived an hour earlier at 7 a.m. The adoption of Eastern Daylight Time in 2006 brought a major shift in Eastern’s sunlight schedule, the negative effects of which continue to be recognized.

Senate CR11, calling for an examination of these effects by a special legislative study committee, was overwhelmingly approved in committee by a 5-1 vote with eight senators adding their names as co-authors. Two days later SCR11 was killed in a closed-door meeting of the Republican Caucus that caused withdrawal of SCR11 from further consideration.

Why the panic over having the facts exposed? Who is threatened, and why? Could it be that the benefits of Eastern Time to business are actually myths? Or that public concern would force a time zone debate when Hoosiers learn that our teens have the second-highest suicide attempt rate in the United States and that 55,000 students are chronic absentees each year, mostly due to truancy? Or that millions of dollars being wasted on school delays could be cut in half? Or that July Fourth fireworks could return to 9 p.m. and Hoosier children could again grow up seeing stars and lightning bugs?

Central Time is Indiana’s right time. It’s a no-brainer!

Susannah H. Dillon, president

Central Time Coalition