I know he is considered a Founding Father and all, but I have some serious issues with Ben Franklin.

Now, don’t get me wrong, I love seeing ole Benjamin’s happy face up in my wallet. His portrait will keep me smiling all the way to the bank.

But, come this Saturday night, I’ll be cursing his name for sure when the guy robs me of an hour of my beauty sleep. (Look at my mug shot. Clearly I need all I can get!)

You see, Ben Franklin was one of the earliest proponents — although done very satirically — of the concept that would become Daylight Saving Time.

So as we “spring forward” I can’t help but vent toward the American statesman, writer and inventor who tortures me all these years later. Even the fact that he was a newspaperman like me doesn’t earn him a free pass from my wrath.

Franklin didn’t coin the moniker and really didn’t even invent what we observe today, but my first issue is with the name itself. If just doesn’t flow well off the tongue. That is why 90 percent of Americans say it wrong by adding the “s” to “saving.”

My second concern with the concept is of much greater importance: Do we even need it at all?

I understand it was designed to help save energy and provide more “daytime” after work hours, but I’m not sure it is still applicable. With all the advances in technology and the way our world never sleeps, it just doesn’t seem to make that big of an impact when juxtaposed against the confusion it causes twice a year.

Third, I don’t like anything that messes with my internal alarm clock. I wake up on my own at almost exactly the same time each day but this change messes with that.

Even worse, parents like me have to fight with their kids at bedtime — even more than normal — because they do not feel like it is time to go to sleep and they look out the window and it doesn’t even look like night-night time.

I should probably just let it all go. It really isn’t healthy to have so much resentment toward such a great man who died 226 years ago. Maybe old BF and I can be BFFs. (Best Friends Forever for anyone who doesn’t have daughters or a social media addiction.)

I’ll try to be positive when I’m bleary-eyed and seeking coffee an hour earlier than normal this Sunday morning.

 

Michael Caldwell is the publisher of Leader Publications LLC. He can be reached at (269) 687-7700 or by email at mike.caldwell@leaderpub.com.