Omaha World Herald. Oct. 31, 2020
It’s time to unite America with common sense: Stop changing the clock
If we want to trace when the country started to go to hell, 1966 could be a good starting point.
Torn by civil rights struggles and with the Vietnam War escalating, Congress made the colossal mistake of approving the Uniform Time Act, which requires us to change our clocks twice a year. Except in Arizona and Hawaii, which opt to stay on Standard Time year-round. Congress allowed that, deepening the inanity.
As we stand poised to “fall back” once again early Sunday, The World-Herald calls for an end to this nonsense.
While it’s easy to make light of this (pun intended), we are absolutely serious and firmly behind a growing movement for year-round Daylight Saving Time.
Thirteen states now have approved legislation that would move them to year-round daylight time if Congress were to authorize it. Bills have been introduced in more than 20 other states, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures, including Nebraska, where this year’s proposal died in the inky blackness of Standard Time. Our lawmakers should revive the bill and add to the momentum.
This is a rare issue that brings the country together: California voters approved the change, pending legislative action, and President Donald Trump last year tweeted his support for year-round daylight time. Nebraska’s bill had Democratic and Republican backers.
A poll last year by the Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research found that 71% of respondents were sick of changing their clocks.
Studies have shown several risks associated with the time change, including increased pedestrian deaths, particularly after work hours in the fall, when drivers and walkers must suddenly adjust to the dark. Other documented dangers include increased heart attacks after the spring time change and worsened depression in the fall.
The only evident health benefit of the time change is that it is accompanied by a reminder to switch batteries in smoke detectors.
Businesses generally like more light later in the day, having lobbied Congress to expand Daylight Saving Time in 1987 and in 2005, and two studies have found that crime drops during DST.
On the flip side, farmers generally have never liked daylight time, and some parents complain that it forces children to go to school in the dark. But farmers are doing chores and kids are going to school in the dark part of the year anyway; we would argue that without the sudden time change, folks would adjust more evenly as winter sets in.
We do need a national standard - truckers and travelers shouldn’t be expected to change times as they cross state borders within time zones.
Congress should act. It could be called the Common Sense Time Act - because it clearly is time for common sense to prevail over this silly falling and springing.
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Lincoln Journal Star. Nov. 1, 2020
Pandemic will reshape downtown Lincoln
In the blink of an eye this spring, downtown Lincoln changed.
Office buildings sit largely empty, with most employees working remotely. Restaurants, salons and bars went months without seating a customer. Several businesses closed up shop – some temporarily, some permanently. These and other stories were part of the Journal Star’s examination last Sunday of what’s been dubbed the “downtown ghost town.”
For as quickly as the flow of the city core was disrupted, the balance of the days, months and years leading up to the COVID-19 pandemic has disappeared. More than seven months later, it’s unclear when – or if – the comfortable flow of people and business in the heart of Lincoln will return.
And, when it does, it will certainly look different.
This pandemic has, in the short term, shaken us to the core, exposed deep divides and brought out stories of hope and heartbreak. But the longer term? That remains unknown – and will for the foreseeable future.
At some point, though, the pandemic, and its legacy of death and economic destruction, will end. When that day finally comes, Lincoln will find itself at a crossroads.
Beloved restaurants, bars, live music venues and other retailers rely on foot traffic. But there’s no guarantee it will return to pre-pandemic levels downtown.
The office buildings downtown provide somewhat of a captive audience, as does the University of Nebraska-Lincoln campus. But the nature of delivery for work and education are in for a cloudy future, as technology quickly adapted to allow both to be completed remotely.
Then what?
As the Red Hot Chili Peppers note, “Destruction leads to very rough road, but it also breeds creation.” The slate won’t be completely blank, obviously, but a paradigm shift is inevitable for downtown Lincoln. For all the harm this virus has done to people’s lives and livelihoods, the city’s core can emerge stronger with the proper vision and direction. COVID-19 can knock us as a community down for some time; it can’t knock us out.
Doing so will take all of us.
It requires Lincolnites to support our small businesses and provide an accommodating environment for entrepreneurs to take a chance. It requires Lincolnites to patronize local businesses. It requires elected officials to look at the long-term picture and bring to fruition their goals for the most vibrant Capital City in our yet-to-be-determined reality going forward.
Lincoln, like all other cities, is built to accommodate the world that existed before most people had ever heard of a coronavirus or Zoom. The pandemic that’s made those words integral parts of our vocabulary will also shape the city in the years to come.
Nowhere is that more true than downtown. Though the present ghost-town feel will be only temporary, the changes that result from this pandemic will shape the heart of Lincoln for generations to come.
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McCook Daily Gazette. Oct. 29, 2020
Seniors ‘punching above their weight’ in value to society
Baby boomers have always had more than their share of influence on society, and still do as they move into retirement age, but in a good way.
Although people over 50 made up just 34% of Nebraska’s population in 2018, they contributed 39% to the state’s gross domestic product, according to research released by the AARP.
As consumers, workers, business owners, volunteers and family caregivers, their contribution is expected to grow to more than $150 billion by 2050.
Some of that contribution is difficult to quantify — coming in the form of an average of 250 hours per person over 50 per year caring for loved ones, amounting to some $2.2 billion of value to society.
In addition, the same group of Nebraskans put in an average of 113 volunteer hours a year, valued at $1.4 billion.
“In truth, people over the age of 50 have a disproportionate positive impact,” said Todd Stubbendieck, director at AARP Nebraska. “When you look at their contribution as a percentage of GDP, they’re outpunching their weight, to use a sports analogy.”
He said the study refutes the idea that older people contribute less to society, and called for investments at the state and local level to ensure those who are struggling economically get the resources and opportunities they need.
Those hours they spend volunteering and caregiving can easily amount to a second, nearly full-time job.
Stubbendieck urged the seniors themselves to look for ways to stay engaged after retirement, and take advantage of new opportunities to volunteer safely from home.
“I think the first place to start is to stop and think, what are you passionate about, and what would you like to accomplish. And then begin to reach out to those organizations that match those priorities for you,” he said.
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