B4 THE BULLETIN • SATURDAY, MARCH 13, 2021
EDITORIALS & OPINIONS
Heidi Wright
Gerry O’Brien
Richard Coe
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Publisher
Editor
Editorial Page Editor
Time to stop
messing with
time changes
THE LOS ANGELES TIMES
I
t’s nearly that time of year again when Americans reset
their clocks one hour ahead, grumble about losing an
hour of sleep — and wonder why on Earth we keep
observing the outdated tradition of tinkering with time
twice a year.
It’s a good question. There’s no
practical benefit to the biannual
clock-changing ritual beyond
reminding people to check their
smoke alarm batteries. But there
are plenty of annoyances and
maybe some health risks too.
It sows confusion and dis-
combobulation (is it spring for-
ward, fall back — or the other
way round?). Some studies
have found a correlation be-
tween changing the clocks and
increased heart attacks, strokes
and car accidents. That’s not
proof, of course, but given how
messing with time schedules can
disrupt sleep, and messing with
sleep can decrease alertness and
impair physical health, it’s not
hard to see a connection.
But inertia is a powerful force.
We keep doing it because we’ve
been doing it. And with more
important issues commanding
the attention of Congress, law-
makers must find it a lot easier
just to follow this pointless tra-
dition than to take to the time to
examine it.
Nevertheless, momentum is
building nationally to dump this
practice and stick with daylight
saving time year round. (In the
event you are confused — and
many of us are — daylight saving
is recognized for the eight months
from March to November; stan-
dard time is what we revert to for
the other four months.)
Sixteen states including Cal-
ifornia have endorsed the idea
of remaining on daylight saving
time permanently, and others
are considering it. Two states
don’t do the clock-changing
thing at all, but that’s because
they recognize standard time
year-round: Arizona (except for
the portion within the Navajo
nation), because of the summer
heat, and Hawaii, because of its
proximity to the equator, which
gives each day there a roughly
equal amount of daylight all year
long. The European parliament
has also voted to stop changing
the clocks but has yet to actually
implement the change.
Time may be running short
for the clock-changing fool-
ishness. This week Sen. Marco
Rubio, R-Fla., reintroduced a
bill that would put the nation
on permanent daylight saving
time. It’s the third time he has
proposed this change since 2018,
when his state’s Legislature voted
in favor of stopping the time
shift. Earlier versions didn’t get
very far. This time may be dif-
ferent, however, because Rubio
has enlisted the support of seven
other senators from both parties.
We sure hope the third time
is the charm because the bene-
fits for keeping this tradition, if
there ever were any, aren’t rel-
evant in 2021. It didn’t deliver
any significant energy savings, as
was hoped when adopted during
World War I. And though we
have all heard the argument
about kids having to walk to
school in the dark if we don’t
move the clocks back for winter,
it’s not really an issue today.
And the poor farmers we have
heard so much about? It’s a myth
that adopting daylight saving
was a measure to help agricul-
ture. In fact, when California
voted to start the clock-changing
practice in 1949, farmers were
very much opposed to it, noting
that cows didn’t care whether it
was 6 a.m. or 3 million o’clock.
There are some who would
prefer permanent standard time,
which means more daylight in
the morning year-round. But
we think it makes more sense to
have more daylight at the end
of the day when more people
are awake and active. Besides, it
would be less disruptive, as we
already spend two-thirds of the
year on daylight saving time.
Historical
editorials: 3 kinds
of U.S. senators
e e
Editor’s note: The following historical
editorials originally appeared in the Feb.
24 edition of what was then called The
Bend Bulletin.
T
alk about weather — did
you ever see anywhere a
finer brand than that we
are now enjoying? Frost has gone
from the soil and farmers are
turning the “stubborn glebe,” the
birds are caroling their prettiest,
sunny days and moony nights
entice one out of doors. All of
which makes one glad to be alive.
…
Congressman Adam Bede,
of Minnesota, has been hav-
ing some fun with his brethren
of the Senate. The noted wit is
reported as having said: “You
know there are three kinds of
United States Senator these days,
the old Senator with the young
wife, the senator with several
wives and the senators who have
been indicted. Why, nowadays,
when the roll is called in the
United States Senate, the mem-
bers don’t know whether to an-
swer present or not guilty.”
…
The experience of man-
kind for thousands of years has
evolved this precept, which
ought to be framed into the life
of every man who values his
own peace of mind and his ob-
ligations to his fellow man: Live
within your means.
The practice of living beyond
one’s means lies at the bottom of
more dishonor and misery that
can be catalogued in a month.
Greed and hypocrisy thrive
upon it, honest toil is always
its prey. The maxim is as good
for public corporations as for
individuals.
…
Now comes the biennial
“mileage grab” as a sort of sequel
to the “clerkship abuse” of the
legislature. Mileage and per diem
for the members of the Legisla-
ture amounts to $15,674.30. Two
representatives and one senator,
A.L. Mills, S.M. Mears and R.A.
Booth do not claim mileage. The
assumption is that these mem-
bers do not think it necessary
to accept transportation at the
hands of the state, so long as they
traveled on passes. Linthicum of
Multnomah, accepts only $3.30,
which is the round-trip fare
between Portland and Salem.
Smith of Josephine, pays his rail-
road fare and takes a receipt to
show that he has the same.
My Nickel’s Worth
Health care workers deserve parity ment in transit, biking and walking.
A letter in Thursday’s editorial page
reminds us that there are two sides to ev-
ery story, that it is dangerous to demon-
ize. This is true.
The writer, in referring to the current
strike of technical workers at St. Charles,
points out the difficulties of manage-
ment. I imagine their stress is as great as
that of the people who are petitioning.
As an outsider, one who has lived here
long enough to observe the morph from
a smaller, intimate hospital into a large
corporate structure, I have heard from
friends and family who work or have
worked at St. Charles.
Lack of respect, which includes fair
wages, has been an ongoing employee
concern. Is the problem inevitable, given
the expanse of the operation? Is it pos-
sible to give the same level of care to
employees that we get as patients? As
details are worked out it is my hope that
all employees are heard and seen as a
necessary and valuable part of the health
care team.
— Janet Whitey, Bend
Boosting Bend’s livability
Thank you to the editorial board for
highlighting the need for more invest-
Bend is at a critical juncture in prioritiz-
ing spending on these types of initiatives
while also mitigating parking pressures.
At Commute Options, we strive to
facilitate better and safer commuting
options for Bend and throughout Cen-
tral Oregon for a number of reasons. A
well-funded bike and pedestrian route
system can improve safety for children
and adults who choose to walk or roll,
boost Bend’s livability, increase health
benefits through active transportation
and reduce adverse environmental im-
pacts from traffic congestion and carbon
emissions.
In regard to financing mechanisms,
one new source for increased funding
is under consideration right now by the
state Legislature. Senate Bill 395, dubbed
“Safe Routes For All” would increase
funding for safer bike and pedestrian
routes. Funding for this use has been
stuck at just 1% of state transportation
funding for 50 years. A lot has changed
in the last five decades, especially in
Bend and Central Oregon. A funding
hike is long overdue.
Commute Options has been active
in Central Oregon for 30 years and has
seen firsthand how commuting patterns
have changed, due to more options such
as bus service, bikeshare, expanded bike
and pedestrian routes and more. We ap-
preciate all that our local elected officials
have done to make that happen along
the way. That said, with renewed invest-
ment, there are new options and tech-
nologies that will make commuting even
easier and safer in the years ahead.
— Brian Potwin, executive director,
Commute Options, Bend
Support voiced for ‘common-sense
thinking’
I am not a parent of a school-aged
child but am so glad to see that there is
one elected official that has the courage
to step up on this issue: Redmond city
Councilor Krisanna Clark-Endicott’s
support of protecting women’s sports
against transgender players.
(Clark-Endicott faced criticism this
week from the community and a fellow
city councilor after posting support for
a controversial South Dakota law about
transgender student-athletes on her per-
sonal Facebook page).
We need a champion for com-
mon-sense thinking in this part of Or-
egon and I am glad to see that we have
one close by. It will be interesting to see
what our COVID-19-bound City Coun-
cil has to say on this matter.
— Bill Gregoricus, Bend
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Tunnel vision about vaping brings harm
BY TANNER ALIFF
I
n the spirit of hasty overreaction,
states like Maryland and Oregon
have seized the momentum of last
year’s federal ban on flavored vapes and
are looking to take it a step further, ef-
fectively halting the sale, manufacturing
and distribution of all flavored vaping
products.
Legislation like this is only going to
open the floodgates for black market ex-
ploitation and strip away another alter-
native pathway for tobacco smokers to
leave traditional cigarettes.
Health advocates, especially those
who wanted to prevent Juul from tar-
geting teens with their advertising, are
hailing the federal and state level bans as
colossal victories. But the potential long-
term effects of the bans aren’t sitting well
with everyone. Skeptics are concerned
this will just promote black-market fla-
vor manufacturing and incentivize e-cig-
arette users to return to more harmful
tobacco products.
Creating legislation to protect chil-
dren from malicious marketing is a no-
ble cause, but it’s important that we con-
sider the costs. Overbearing regulations
have historically created a vacuum for
unsafe black markets to rise up. Take the
Prohibition, for example. It’s hard to find
a better picture of a public health regula-
tion that opened the door for organized
crime and illegal distillation of toxic
moonshine.
Today, with the prohibition of fla-
vored vaping products, history is repeat-
ing itself. Why do we think e-cigarette
regulations would be any better? They’re
GUEST COLUMN
susceptible to the same
exploitation that booze
was in the 1920s. And
we’re seeing the effects
already.
Crude and coun-
terfeit vaping prod-
ucts had been making
Aliff
their way onto shelves
across the country years before the ban.
Even former FDA Commissioner Scott
Gottlieb said many of the 2019 early
pulmonary issues associated with e-cig-
arettes were probably linked to counter-
feit products that work with commonly
used devices, including Juul.
Post-ban, those black market products
are the only ones left for young adults to
get their hands on. What’s more, the fed-
eral ban targets only nicotine flavor-car-
tridges, despite federal studies showing
that the initial 1,500 cases of EVALI and
the 33 deaths that spurred panics have
been linked mostly to contaminated
cannabis products.
Besides giving rise to a dangerous
black-market, the ban also undermines
e-cigs intended purpose: To help to-
bacco users to quit smoking more harm-
ful traditional cigarettes.
Vaping, smoking, drinking or in-
gesting most any synthetic substance
over time tends to carry negative health
consequences — that much is true. But
helping people quit inhaling the 7,000
chemical compounds found in a stan-
dard cigarette by offering them an alter-
native with significantly lower amount
of toxins is still a good idea.
Just five years ago, many e-cigarette
technologies were being championed as
a public health advancement that was
greatly lowering the amount of die-hard
tobacco smokers. Now public opinion
has drastically changed despite many en-
tities like the NHS in Britain still affirm-
ing vaping as a reliable way to quit tradi-
tional smoking.
It was not nicotine patches or gum that
led the United States to see its all-time
lowest adult smoking rate. It was vaping
and the uptake use of e-cigarettes that
allowed for massive increases in the one-
year quit rate. And a major component
of vaping’s success can be attributed to its
wide variety of flavors. Most people don’t
leave traditional smoking just to switch
over to an electronic machine that emits
the same tobacco flavor. Polls strongly in-
dicate that most vapers love flavors other
than tobacco and enjoy the variety.
Without flavors, society stands to lose
any benefit that could be pulled from
vaping in the first place. America needs
to take a breath and reconsider. Is it pru-
dent to move forward with these kinds
of reactionary bans without more sub-
stantiated evidence?
It’s clear: The ban is not helping teens
or adults. If anything, it’s simply remov-
ing legitimate FDA oversight and invit-
ing widespread exploitation. Why do it?
e e
Tanner Aliff, formerly of Portland, is a Washington,
D.C.-based Young Voices contributor who works as a
research fellow studying the effects of the COVID-19
pandemic, Healthcare Freedom and Reforming
Medicare.