On Sunday, Nov. 4, we're supposed to move out of daylight-saving time and return to standard time.

Let's not play the clock-changing game anymore. The Utah Legislature has refused to act to throw out this silly convention, so it's time for the people to take matters into their own hands.

Don't switch. Join a popular revolt, and let the chips fall where they may.

It's an entertaining thought, particularly since leaving the clocks alone has considerable support from Utahns. A Herald Poll last year showed people two-to-one in favor of leaving the clocks alone. After all, Arizona doesn't change, and it seems to get along just fine.

The whole idea of moving back and forth was to save energy. By shifting time ahead an hour in the spring, we get up later with reference to the sun, but because summer days are longer, we get an extra hour of daylight to barbecue, swim or hang out after work.

We get even more this year. A 2005 law took effect, adding a month to daylight-saving.

In theory, people won't turn on their lights as early under the scheme. And if the bright skies tempt them to go watch a ball game or work in the garden, they won't be turning on the television or the computer as much. By some estimates, the shift saves the U.S. 10,000 barrels of oil a day. A study done for the Department of Energy three decades ago proclaimed that moving the clock to make human activity coincide with daylight saved 1 percent of the nation's electric use.

But does it reallyfi Some argue that people just crank up the air conditioning more. If it's a nice day, more people go for drives or visit friends, burning more oil.

Things have changed a lot since the 1970s. Today we use so many more gadgets from the moment we wake up that the energy claims have become dubious.

Take a study published this year by the California Energy Commission. It concluded that the extension of daylight-saving time had little or no effect on energy consumption.

The clock-changing also has been hyped as a safety measure. Supposedly, people traveling home from work in daylight are safer. But a Canadian study found an 8 percent increase in traffic accidents on the Monday following the shift. And it's likely that the later daylight tempts more people to go out on the roads.

It's been called an anti-crime measure. Supposedly the "later" sunset discourages criminals. But you could also hypothesize that the shift provides convenient cover for cat burglars.

We'd love to see a study on the costs and sheer inconvenience of a whole nation resetting clocks. For example, when Congress added a month to daylight saving, companies spent millions to reset the times on their computers.

When we spring ahead in March, insomniacs complain that the change jolts them out of whatever sleeping pattern they had. All of us are a bit groggy and grumpy that day and the next, resetting our internal clocks and craving that lost hour of sleep. Biological clocks are not as easily reset as the digital variety, which results in a huge loss in productivity. It takes a couple of weeks to fully adjust.

In the larger view, the whole concept of daylight saving slanders that wonderful hour, dawn. It is the freshest, crispest time of the day. The sun is brightest, the air cleanest. We have more spring in our steps, more sparkle in our eyes. The day has not yet been graffitied with disappointment and frustration; we have not yet been bogged down with frustrations and burdens.

We'd hazard a guess that a large number of great ideas first pop into people's minds before the sun has climbed too high in the sky.

People should savor those first hours of sunlight, not shunt them off into the oblivion of an artificial scheme.

We suspect much the same holds true even for "night people."

A character in "The Diary of Samuel Marchbanks" by novelist Robertson Davies speaks for many: "I don't really care how time is reckoned so long as there is some agreement about it, but I object to being told that I am saving daylight when my reason tells me that I am doing nothing of the kind. I even object to the implication that I am wasting something valuable if I stay in bed after the sun has risen. As an admirer of moonlight I resent the bossy insistence of those who want to reduce my time for enjoying it."

An ancient tale says King Canute of Sweden put his throne on the beach to show his flatterers that he didn't command the tide. Daylight-saving time shows that less humility was on display by a bunch of business and political leaders who are long since dead. Yet we keep up the stupid charade they bequeathed to us, even though the computer age has rendered them irrelevant.

Citizens of Utah, unite! We'd all be better off leaving the clocks alone. We should vote for the cycle we want to live with, and then stick with it. All we would lose is the surliest two weeks of the year.

If the Arizona legislature can enact common sense, so can Utah's.

See http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2005/07/0728_050728_daylight.html and http://slate.com/id/2123403/ for more information. Note also the book "Seize the Daylight" by David Prerau (www.seizethedaylight.com/).

WHAT DO YOU THINKfi Should we keep daylight saving timefi Send your comments to dhpolls@heraldextra.com or call 344-2942. Please leave your name, hometown and phone number with your comments. E-mail comments should not exceed 100 words; voicemail comments should be no longer than 30 seconds. Anonymous and unverifiable responses will not be published.

The Daily Herald will publish comments on Oct. 14.