The final Rhino Times Schmoozefest of 2016 will be held on Thursday, Nov. 17 from 6 to 8 p.m. at Blue Agave Mexican Bar & Grill at 3900 Battleground Ave.
As always, hors d’ouevres, beer and wine are provided to those who sign in and wear a name tag.
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It’s hard to believe that in 2016 the American public still believes that turning the clocks back in the fall and forward in the spring saves daylight. It is pure superstition foisted upon a trusting public that for some bizarre reason thinks “the government knows best.”
Twice a year everyone’s internal clock is thrown off kilter for a few weeks as if we all moved to a different time zone. It doesn’t save a second of daylight to turn your clock back, forward, sideways or upside down.
And there is no way the government should decide that we all turn our clocks back or forward. With so many people today working flexible hours, working from home, telecommuting and all the rest, it makes even less sense than it did when it was implemented.
Just get rid of the whole thing and if people want to get up earlier in the summer, they can. If they don’t, they shouldn’t be tricked into getting up earlier whether they want to or not.
I hate spring forward in April because I lose an hour of sleep and I hate fall back in November because the days are already getting shorter and suddenly it seems they get an hour shorter all at once. I know that they don’t actually get an hour shorter, but by moving the clocks forward suddenly it gets dark at 5:30 instead of 6:30, and I’m fooled just like everyone else.
Also, the time change is not free. Any organization that works 24 hours a day – hospitals, police, emergency medical services, pharmacies, utilities – have to adjust their shifts. I have never been able to figure out how it works, but somebody is either working an extra hour or getting paid for an hour that doesn’t really exist.
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Here’s a not so fun fact. Guilford County is half the size of Mecklenburg County and Wake County. Guilford is right at 500,000. Wake and Mecklenburg are both just over 1 million. But the gap is widening. Both larger counties are growing at more than twice the rate of Guilford. Wake grew by 13.7 percent in the past five years and Mecklenburg by 12.4 percent. Guilford during the same period grew 6 percent. Not only have we fallen way behind those two in population, we are falling further behind every year.
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When I went to vote on Tuesday at Page High School, North Carolina Supreme Court Justice Bob Edmunds was campaigning out in front of the polls. I asked him if he planned to be there all day and he said, no, he had to be in Raleigh in the afternoon, in case the state Supreme Court had to make a ruling. It had never occurred to me that if you’re on the state Supreme Court you might have to work on Election Day.
It’s just another reason that judges should be appointed, not elected. From District Court judge all the way up to state Supreme Court Jjustice, most people see the names of those running for the first time on the ballot. A lot of people don’t vote for the judges because they don’t know who they are.
As long as I’m on the subject, why in the world do we vote for the Council of State? I believe that was implemented when North Carolina was determined to have the weakest governor in the country. At that time the governor could only serve one term and had no veto power. Both of those have been changed. It seems like it’s time to let the governor appoint his own cabinet and make the ballot less confusing.
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Early voting brings about an interesting issue. What happens if someone votes early and dies before Election Day? I asked Guilford County Director of Elections Charlie Collicutt, and he said nothing happens unless the vote is challenged. If it is challenged then the Board of Elections can remove that vote because dead people are not allowed to vote.
