A technology company based in Indiana was about to go public. A crucial conference call was scheduled with Wall Street investors, Silicon Valley venture capitalists and Chicago-based financial analysts.
When the call began, only half of the people were on the line. Members of the company panicked. Was it a result of poor scheduling, faulty phone connections or last-minute reservations?
None of the above. Blame it on daylight-saving time.
"The investment bankers didn't know what time it was in Indiana," said John Gibbs, co-founder of Interactive Intelligence, an Indiana-based software company. "They apologized, but it was more embarrassing to me."
Daylight-saving time begins Sunday at 2:00 a.m.
Indiana, Hawaii and Arizona are the three states that do not observe the yearly time change. Seventy countries around the globe, meanwhile, participate in daylight-saving time.
But the time in Indiana is more confusing than one could imagine. Of the 92 counties in the state, 10 are in the Central time zone and observe daylight-saving time. The remaining 82 are in the Eastern time zone but do not observe the change.
To make things even more complicated, five Indiana counties near the Cincinnati, Ohio, and Louisville, Kentucky, area illegally observe daylight-saving time so they can do business with these cities smoothly and without time conflicts.
"They're a bunch of leftover 60s radicals down there," said Brian Williams, a member of the Hoosier Daylight Coalition, an organization trying to pass legislation to make daylight-saving time a state-wide practice.
There is, however, opposition. Some people like it just fine without daylight-saving time.
"We're not going to let a bunch of bureaucrats in Washington tell us what time it is in Indiana," said Bob Kraft, director of state government relations for the Indiana Farm Bureau.
A resolution was recently passed in Indiana to create a committee to study the merits of daylight-saving time and the idea of one time zone for the Hoosier State, Williams said. The results of the study will be presented to the Indiana House of Representatives for review in 2002.
Supporters of the resolution said that, as more business is done over the phone, too much time is taken organizing confusing time schedules and that uses unnecessary staff hours.
There are safety benefits with daylight-saving time.
According to a website about the history of daylight-saving time, "Several studies in the U.S. and Britain have found that daylight, almost certainly because of improved visibility, substantially decreases (by four times) the likelihood of pedestrians being killed on the roads."
Additionally, energy is conserved with daylight-saving time. With more daylight in the spring and summer, people go outdoors to take advantage of the extra daylight hours. Clearly, when people are not home, they don't use as much electricity. Amid California's energy angst, a recent resolution introduced by State Sen. Betty Karnette proposed that the state observe daylight-saving time year-round.
"Frankly, I get more support calls on this issue than anything I've ever introduced," she said. "I was having my hair done today at the salon and the girls said, 'Oh please, Betty, I hope it goes through.'"
Daylight-saving time may be popular, but opponents are adamant that it is a decision that should be made at the state level.
"Farmers find that they want to be participants in evening activities," Kraft said. "If you're working in the fields, that makes it difficult."
Kraft also said farmers rely on teenagers in rural areas to work in their fields. Younger workers will be less likely to be able to work in the field in the evening when their parents want them home for dinner.
Another concern is that if the Eastern time zone of Indiana were to observe daylight-saving time, children in the rural areas would have to wait for the morning school bus in the dark.
There are economic concerns as well.
Owners of movie theaters, restaurants and bars are not fans of daylight-saving time. Patrons are less likely to frequent these establishments when it is still light outside, Kraft said.
The history of this highly debated issue begins in 1784 when Benjamin Franklin wrote an essay titled "An Economical Project," while he was an American delegate in Paris.
His idea was met with some intrigue, but mainly opposition, until World War I. In 1918, in order to conserve fuel needed for the war effort, the United States was placed on daylight-saving time for seven months.
"The law, however, proved so unpopular (mostly because people rose earlier and went to bed earlier than we do today) that the law was later repealed in 1919 over President Wilson's veto," according to the daylight-saving time website.
Regardless, daylight-saving time was observed once again for an entire year during World War II, but the standards on daylight-saving time remained inconsistent until 1966 when The Uniform Time Act of 1966 was signed into law that stated it would begin on the last Sunday of April and end on the last Sunday of October. In 1986, President Ronald Reagan signed a law that changed daylight-saving time from the first Sunday in April to the last Sunday in October.
Daylight-saving time lasted 10 months in the United States in 1974 and eight months in 1975 following the oil crisis, in hopes of saving additional energy.
Supporters of daylight-standard time acknowledge some of the risks of having less light in the morning.
"I wouldn't want my kindergartner walking to school when it's dark out," Karnette said. "But why not start school later?"
She also dismissed the farmer's argument.
"You can milk cows anytime," Karnette said. "If you're a farmer, get up earlier."
