I always look at a new year as a blank slate. Given the gift of another 8,784 hours – this is a leap year – what, exactly, do I plan to make of it?
Well, knock on wood, there’ll be plenty to do. On my list is writing another book that no one will read. (It will join the two others on Amazon that no one read.)
I also plan to travel. Every year for the past few years, my wife and I have gone exploring a handful of far-off and not-so-far-off places. This year’s destination? Who knows? Maybe Sublimity. I hear it’s nice.
I’ll also recycle my resolutions of the past 35 years or so to lose a little weight to exercise a little more.
But there’s a whole list of things I know we won’t see this year. Top of mind is a shorter election season. Here it is 11 months from the general election and I’ve not only lost my patience but I’ve made up my mind. I won’t say who I’m voting for – it doesn’t matter, since I usually write in someone – but I see no reason it takes more than a year for candidates to get their acts together.
I know, there are caucuses and primaries, but why should voters in other states dictate who will be on the ballot? I would favor the political parties putting their best candidates on the ballot and letting them campaign for a couple of months.
Then we would vote and get on with our lives.
Among the other things we won’t see: a calendar that makes sense. Have you ever noticed how goofy the calendar is? Take leap year, please. With the exception of Thanksgiving and Presidents’ Day, holidays move from year to year. One year, a holiday will land on a Wednesday, the next year it will land on another day. Congress has the ability to designate that every holiday be celebrated on a Friday or Monday. They did it with President’s Day, which is the third Monday of February. By the way, Presidents’ Day marks the birthdays of George Washington and Abraham Lincoln. (Election spoiler alert: I usually write in one or the other for president.)
If Congress really wanted to update the calendar, it could set up a year with 13 months, each of which would have four weeks. This would also allow each holiday to be anchored to a Friday or a Monday each year.
The question I get most often is what would the 13th month be? I think it should be between July and August and we should call it “Vacation.”
But again, you’ll never see that happen.
Another thing we won’t see this year: Daylight Savings Time disappear. Or better yet, Daylight Savings Time made permanent. Either way, I think the idea of switching time twice a year is nutso-bananas-crazy. The West Coast states – including Oregon — and Florida have passed laws to permanently stay on Daylight time, but only if Congress approves, so good luck with that.
It should be noted that a total of 26 states are looking at permanent Daylight time. Again, good luck.
So there are a few things we won’t see this year. The one advantage of such massive inaction by Congress and others is that we don’t have to make up a new list of nonstarters each year. We can just add to it.
Carl Sampson is a freelance writer and editor. He lives in Stayton.
