Tim Rasmussen: This Weekend’s Return to “Standard Time” Feels Symbolic

It’s interesting to me that our switch back to standard time comes just two days before election day. As you know, we’ve been living in “daylight saving” time in order to – theoretically – move our daylight hours around to accommodate a more productive society.

On Sunday, Nov. 6, we’ll return to “standard” time. The word itself implies a space that is regular and right. It’s the standard. Since last spring, when we vaulted away from a time that was considered the standard, my fantasy point is that we must have been living in a false reality. Think about it.

Donald Trump, former TV reality star and CNO – Chief Narcissist Officer – of a multi-billion-dollar real estate empire, was one of the two top candidates running for president. Really. And, Hillary Clinton seemingly escaped prosecution on a number of activities that some said bordered on treason. Yet she remained a viable candidate. Amazing. Oh, yea. And then the Cubs won the World Series. Astounding.

Just to south of us here in Bismarck, we experienced violent protests against a pipeline project that was fully vetted by the government regulatory process only to have the very same government backtrack on its own systems. As others have written, this could have a very chilling effect on future infrastructure investments in a time when our sitting president has said that such development was a key goal for economic growth and job development. That’s a real nose-wrinkling head-scratcher.

I will be very welcoming of the upcoming time change and hope that it can signal a new “standard” of good old-fashioned common sense and honest discourse.

The election will settle some things but the post-voting hangover will only serve to increase the necessity of honest and effective communication between the winners and the losers. After all, both sides of the blue and red aisle will need to work with each other to run our country. And, the Dakota Access Pipeline will be constructed and will be put in service. Hopefully, a new standard will be developed for future interactions with Native Americans on projects like this and concerns can be addressed during the permitting process rather than after.

Let’s allow honest conversation and respect of basic human dignity to be the new standard of our times ahead.