BY DR. GLENN MOLLETTE

We have been hearing and seeing news about the possibility of permanent daylight saving time. Will this work better for you?

There is a song called “Tulsa Time.” In the song, Don Williams sings about living on Tulsa time. When he arrived in California, nobody wanted him in the movies, and no one would sing his songs, so he decided he would set his watch back to Tulsa time and go back to Tulsa.

Many people want to keep their watches set to daylight saving time. They do not want to go back to Tulsa time or set their watch back one hour in early November.

Many Americans do not like leaving work in the dark. They leave work in the dark and arrive home for a very long evening. They start quoting “Twas the Night Before Christmas,” highlighting the line in the poem that reads, “Ma and I had just settled down for a long winter’s nap.” The long winter’s nap starts at about 4:20 p.m. when darkness sets in many parts of the Central time zone. It is different for everyone, but darkness comes very early in December and the first couple of weeks in January. The hours of daylight are simply much shorter from November until the time changes back in early March.

One problem with making DST permanent is a very long, dark morning. In the Eastern time zone, there will be some areas where it will be almost 9 a.m. before daylight breaks. In the song title, “You’ll Never Leave Harlan Alive,” the sun already does not break until about 10 in the morning. This will be very difficult for senior adults who want to be at Walmart by 5 a.m. Many seniors do not drive at night. This means Walmart will be dead until much later in the morning. In some parts of Indiana, daybreak will be at about 8 a.m. This is a far cry from June and July, when it is very light by 5:10 a.m. or so.

Many of us would just as soon stay with the time changes. It gives us something to gripe about or to debate twice each year.

Something we ought to seriously think about is the school kids who catch the bus every morning. The potential danger to little children standing on the road waiting for a bus to pull up is something to consider. If it is dark, it presents a more dangerous scenario for everyone. Any change is not worth endangering one child. Maybe we should simply start school later and have one less hour of school time. Most children and staff are beat by the end of the day. Maybe the kids’ attention span would be a little better if they did not have to sit for such a long day.

We will soon find out which time we will be living in. Will it be daylight saving time or Tulsa time?

Dr. Glenn Mollette is the author of 15 books. He is a graduate of Georgetown College, Southern Baptist Theological Seminary (Louisville, Kentucky) and Lexington Theological Seminary (Lexington, Kentucky). He is the founder of Newburgh Theological Seminary (Newburgh, Indiana). His column is published in over 600 media outlets nationally.