Dear Otus,
I hate daylight saving time and can't believe it's already time to "spring forward" again. If memory serves, Gov. Hutchinson once ran on a strong anti-DST platform. Where does he stand now?
-- Jason Stanley,
Bigelow
Disclaimer: Fayetteville-born Otus the Head Cat's award-winning column of 👉 humorous fabrication 👈 appears every Saturday.
Dear Jason,
It was wholly a pleasure to hear from you and a further pleasure to join you in venting against daylight saving time, which kicks in at 2 a.m. Sunday and lasts until Nov. 5, when we "fall back."
I agree. Daylight saving time is a meddlesome and temporal stench in the nostrils of God. It is a blight upon society and the bane of discerning citizens everywhere.
Your memory serves you well about the governor. It was 1996 when Asa Hutchinson was first elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in the state's 3rd District. He succeeded his brother, Tim, who had gone on that year to win the Senate seat being vacated by David Pryor.
The 3rd District, in the free-thinking and fiercely independent northwest corner of Arkansas, has always been a hotbed of maverick politicians. Old timers recall that was the district where (in 1974) a fresh-faced 28-year-old University of Arkansas law professor named Bill Clinton came within a whisker (6,300 votes) of ousting Republican incumbent John Paul Hammerschmidt.
Clinton went on to be attorney general and governor, then president. His legacy lives on in Little Rock's Clinton Presidential Center and Bill and Hillary Clinton National Airport/Adams Field.
Hutchinson, who was soundly trounced when he ran against Sen. Dale Bumpers in 1986, barely lost when he went up against the legendary Winston Bryant for attorney general in 1990, and was finally in the right place at the right time.
(Attorney general is Arkansas' traditional stepping stone to the Governor's Mansion.)
Six years as co-chairman (with Sheffield Nelson) of the Arkansas Republican Party prepared Hutchinson in 1996 to tap into the northwest Zeitgeist with his vociferous and fervid opposition to daylight saving time.
It was a hotly contested 3rd District race with six contentious DST debates between Hutchinson and his opponents, Democrat Ann Henry and Reform Party candidate Tony Joe Huffman.
Henry, a longtime friend of the Clintons, walked the party line by being staunchly pro-DST. No one recalls Huffman's stand, but he garnered only 2.4 percent of the vote.
Hutchinson was soundly elected on his anti-DST platform with 55.7 percent, leaving Henry with 41.8 percent.
Hutchinson's anti-DST record in the House earned him 80 percent of the vote in 1998 and an unopposed election in 2000. The rest of his career as an appointee in the executive branch is well-known.
Hutchinson's career track was interrupted by the governor's race in 2006, when then-Attorney General Mike Beebe, running on a pro-DST platform, defeated Hutchinson 55.6 percent to 40.7 percent.
Hutchinson then laid low in a couple of appointed positions until the groundswell of public opposition to daylight saving time reached clamorous levels and swept him into the governor's office in 2014. His opponent was highly over-matched former U.S. Representative Mike Ross, a longtime DST advocate.
And why should America be opposed to DST? Sunday at 2 a.m. the vast majority of phlegmatic Americans will rise from their repose, stumble somnambulantly about to their various timepieces and "spring forward" to 3 a.m. Originally intended to save energy, the measure has long outlived its usefulness.
It is an odious disruption. For example, in Little Rock this morning, the sun rose at 6:24 a.m. and will set tonight at 6:13. After "springing forward" Sunday morning, sunrise will be at 7:23 and sunset at 7:14.
Chaos shall once again reign o'er the land as countless millions stagger into church services an hour late, or tune to their favorite TV program only to find the final credits rolling.
Human beings are creatures of habit. People are affected as much as any other mammals by the daily cadence of the spheres. To artificially shift the sunrise and sunset causes untold psychological, biological and emotional damage to the species.
Gov. Hutchinson knows this all too well and continues to lobby to have Arkansas join Hawaii and Arizona in not participating in daylight saving time. More power to him.
Until next time, Kalaka reminds you to closely monitor your diurnal rhythms on Sunday.
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humorous fabrication
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HomeStyle on 03/11/2017