In the rush to find fault with accelerated daylight savings time – such as mourning the dysfunction of computerized clocks – let’s breathe for a moment and ask one, important question:

When is the last time government did something to bring a smile to your face?

Yeah, rising early was a drag. For the first few hours. By early evening, a time that for months had meant darkened drudgery, heading into the golden hues of fading sunlight was positively delightful.

Mainers noticed. Around L-A, couples actually took an evening stroll, while joggers materialized like sidewalk worms after a rainstorm. Walking the dog went from begrudging chore to enthusiastic recreation.

The added daylight gave the evening a sense of potential, rather than finality, and urged us to make the most of it. Coupled with unnaturally warm temperatures – ruined now by another frustrating Nor’easter rumbling through New England – and the effect of DST was the injection of a powerful antidepressant into Maine’s collective psyche.

Credit goes to federal lawmakers, who mandated the acceleration as part of the 2005 Energy Savings Policy Act, under the assumption an extra hour of daylight would reduce consumption of electricity, a notion dating to the 1970s.

Like any bright idea, however, its detractors are plentiful, and vocal.

Cynics deride the change as a gimmick, or “legislative sleight of hand,” as phrased by Max Schulz, a policy fellow at the Manhattan Institute for Policy Research, in an op-ed published in The Washington Post on March 14.

Schulz casts an ominous shadow over our extra sunshine. Airlines will lose preferred takeoff and landing positions due to the time changes. The U.S. will lose pace with the international economy. Companies will struggle to adjust to the change, which will cost them untold funds.

And then there’s the computer issue. Schulz broached large communications and financial firms going haywire with the extra hour, a legitimate concern, but one apparently overblown. Just like the dreaded Y2K, the apocalyptic predictions of DST have been reduced to kicked whimpers.

A Massachusetts Democrat, Rep. Edward Markey, was one of the ringleaders of the Energy Act, which, we’ll admit, could be proven as faulty policy. Studies elsewhere, specifically Australia, say the expected savings from accelerating DST are offset by different pressures on energy.

Let’s worry about that next year. As Schulz wrote, “Talking up extra hours for barbecues and other leisure activities, Markey says, ‘Daylight savings just brings a smile to everybody’s faces.'”

And there’s nothing wrong with government doing that.