Coronavirus masks symbolize cultural divide

Two signs outside the Cornwall Country Market alert customers that they must wear masks inside the store.
Photo by Debra A. Aleksinas
A lone couple occupied a public bench along Kent’s Main Street on a recent Sunday morning as the town slowly came alive with people walking their dogs, dining outdoors or out for a drive.
Unlike most others around them who were sporting facial masks, this couple was bare-faced, and they intend to stay that way.
“It’s my choice, and I choose not to wear a mask. I don’t have to explain why to anybody,” said an adamant Justin Breecher, who was out enjoying a motorcycle ride with his companion through Litchfield County. “I keep my distance.”
As he spoke, a passerby who overheard the conversation paused and calmly uttered through his black face covering, “Not cool, dude,” and continued on his way.
The brief exchange, while hardly confrontational when compared to some explosive encounters nationwide between front-line workers and mask scofflaws, is indicative of the divisiveness that has erupted over mandatory mask requirements.
On April 20, in an effort to slow the spread of the coronavirus, Gov. Ned Lamont signed an executive order requiring everyone in Connecticut to cover their faces with masks or cloth coverings while out in public where social distancing cannot be maintained.
But the requirement is not a law, which means businesses like grocery and convenience stores, restaurants, bars and gyms are left to enforce those rules despite a lack of guidance from the state on how to do so. Across Connecticut and the nation, masks have become a flash point in the virus culture wars as people resume going out in public while coronavirus cases continue to surge.
Masks are like a vaccine
Recent health reports support wearing cloth facial coverings as a means of limiting transmission of the coronavirus.
Some people choose to wear masks for their safety and the safety of people around them. Others say they feel it is a violation of public liberty, or that the virus poses no danger or that masks are unattractive or uncomfortable.
“Masks are hot, ugly and make you feel stupid. The elastic loop always gets stuck over the arm of your glasses when you remove them to wipe off the condensation and you look even more stupid. Plus they’re un-American,” said Sharon epidemiologist Dr. James Shepherd, an infectious disease consultant at Yale-New Haven Hospital.
Masks, said Shepherd, who has worn them for decades, are no one’s favorite item.
“Nonetheless,” he said, “that fragment of material that covers your nose and mouth is like a cut-price vaccine.”
And here’s why: “A seasonal flu vaccine doesn’t protect you from flu 100%. In fact it is only about 50% effective in a good year.”
But 50% is still better than nothing, and, Shepherd said, “If you do get infected it also reduces the likelihood of you passing the flu virus on to someone else.”
A mask, he said, does exactly the same for the coronavirus.
“By wearing it you reduce the chances that infected viral droplets will be inhaled into your airway. In return, if you are infected your droplets will be trapped.”
Masks also seem to have a “significant effect” on reducing the efficiency of viral transmission, they allow us to “open up” safely again, and communities that have adhered to mask wearing among other things seem to be much safer than communities that haven’t, said Shepherd.
“It seems like a small price to pay.”
Jody Diaz, a customer at the Kent Mobil convenience store, echoed Shepherd’s sentiment.
“I don’t love wearing it,” she said referring to her fashionable bumble bee-themed mask. “Of course it’s uncomfortable. I look at it this way: Worst-case scenario is if I don’t wear it and somebody dies.
“That doesn’t seem like such a big sacrifice if I can keep people healthy,” said the Southbury, Conn., resident.
Pointing to a sign on the door of Kent Mobil advising customers to wear a mask, Diaz said she is also concerned about the burden resting on business owners to enforce mask policies that are a requirement rather than a law.
“It’s not something they signed up for when they opened their business. Many are also trying to deal with having just reopened after being shut down.”
‘I can’t enforce it’
Inside Kent Mobil, store manager Nee Maddumage said if a customer refuses to cover his or her face at his establishment, there is little he can do.
“I can’t judge. I don’t know if they have asthma or something. I can’t enforce it. The only thing I can say is ‘be supportive, wear a mask.’”
Maddumage estimated that about 98% of customers don masks, and that the scofflaws are few and far between.
“This community is so supportive,” he said, noting that several customers have donated large supplies of personal protective equipment (PPE) to store employees, including surgical masks and protective gloves, which he and his cashier were wearing.
At Stateline Pizza in North Canaan, owner Chris Christodoulou said when a customer comes into his restaurant bare-faced, he offers them a mask. Despite a notice on the front door announcing that masks are required, “If somebody doesn’t wear one, I can’t be the police, too, especially if it is a long-time customer. I have so many other things to worry about, and the rule is not law, so it’s difficult to enforce.”
But avoid confrontations
Bob LaBonne Jr., owner of LaBonne’s Market in Salisbury (with stores in Watertown, Prospect and Woodbury, Conn., as well), has enough on his hands trying to keep his employees and customers safe from COVID-19, so he has directed his employees not to confront mask-less customers for fear of triggering a confrontation.
“In the last three months we’ve banned more customers than in the last three years,” said LaBonne. Employees have been subject to “f-bombs,” rude behavior, refusal to wear masks or to have their temperature taken before entering the store, which is the store policy.
“I don’t engage with them. I want to be respectful.” But respectful only goes so far.
“We had one instance where we had to call the police,” said LaBonne, referring to a customer, a landscaper, in his 30s, who was shouting obscenities and refused to don a mask.
“He gave everybody a hard time” because he was not allowed to enter the store, said LaBonne. “I told him he was on private property and it was our choice if we chose to make [mask wearing] mandatory.” Not wanting to cause a disturbance, workers waited until the customer left and then summoned police. “They warned him not to come back,” said the store owner.
LaBonne, who sits on the reopening study committee for the Region One School District, is a staunch believer in the value of face masks in slowing the spread of the coronavirus.
On a recent committee conference call, he said, a physician pointed to a case in Missouri where two hairdressers who did not know they were COVID-19 positive potentially exposed 140 customers and six coworkers to the virus.
Face masks, said LaBonne, were credited with preventing transmission from that exposure.
The grocery chain owner has a message for anti-maskers: “One of my best friends spent 90 days at Yale,” fighting the coronavirus, said LaBonne. “For three crucial days, in the middle of it, he told me, ‘My only job was to breathe.’”
“In the end, when all of this is said and done,” added LaBonne, “we are all going to be judged by our actions.”
Emergency responders block Amenia Union Road in Sharon Saturday, Oct. 11, while responding to the vehicle crash.
SHARON — Emergency crews were called Saturday, Oct. 11, to Amenia Union Road in Sharon for a report of a vehicle into a building with entrapment.
The call went out shortly after 3 p.m. with an update at 3:20 p.m. reporting one dead on arrival, two conscious. Emergency helicopter transport was requested.
State police released the following information: "Troopers from Troop B - North Canaan, responded to Amenia Union Rd in Sharon for a motor vehicle into a building. Serious injuries were reported, and LifeStar was dispatched to the scene. The roadway was closed in the area for several hours for the investigation but has since reopened. The investigation remains active, anything further will be posted to cspnews.org when available."
Updates will be posted.
LAKEVILLE — Rhys V. Bowen, 65, of Foxboro, Massachusetts, died unexpectedly in his sleep on Sept. 15, 2025. Rhys was born in Sharon, Connecticut, on April 9, 1960 to Anne H. Bowen and the late John G. Bowen. His brother, David, died in 1979.
Rhys grew up at The Hotchkiss School in Lakeville, where his father taught English. Attending Hotchkiss, Rhys excelled in academics and played soccer, basketball, and baseball. During these years, he also learned the challenges and joys of running, and continued to run at least 50 miles a week, until the day he died.
In 1982 after graduating summa cum laude from Harvard College, Rhys returned to Hotchkiss to teach biology, where he met his wife of 35 years, Rebecca (Becky) Snow. After two years of teaching, he worked at a research field site in Borneo, then went on to the University of California, Davis where he earned a PhD in Animal Behavior in 1995.
Rather than follow an academic tenure track, Rhys preferred the solitary focus of field ornithology, and he spent several decades researching the ecology of bird species in California and on Cape Cod and the Islands. Rhys believed passionately in supporting biodiversity through habitat preservation. His proudest achievements, therefore, came through his work for the Lakes Region Conservation Trust, in New Hampshire, where he served on committees and the Board of Trustees for twenty years, including three years as Chair.
Deeply intellectual and curious, Rhys learned Homeric Greek so he could read The Odyssey and The Iliad in their original language. An amateur Melville scholar, he would wax poetic about reading Moby-Dick for the umpteenth time.Rhys’s spirit was filled by the performing arts. Concerts by the Handel and Haydn Society and Boston Early Music Festival often brought tears to his eyes, while Boston Bluegrass Union shows delivered toe-tapping fidgetiness.
Rhys will be missed by his wife, Becky Snow, his mother, Anne Bowen, extended family, friends, and anyone who had the pleasure of knowing him.
A service will be held at The Hotchkiss School chapel on Saturday, Nov. 15, 2025 at 1 p.m..
In honor of Rhys’s memory, donations can be made to the Lakes Region Conservation Trust.
LAKEVILLE — Kelsey K. Horton, 43, a lifelong area resident, died peacefully on Saturday, Sept. 27, 2025, at Norwalk Hospital in Norwalk, Connecticut, following a courageous battle with cancer. Kelsey worked as a certified nursing assistant and administrative assistant at Noble Horizons in Salisbury, from 1999 until 2024, where she was a very respected and loved member of their nursing and administrative staff.
Born Oct. 4, 1981, in Sharon, she was the daughter of W. Craig Kellogg of Southern Pines, North Carolina, and JoAnne (Lukens) Tuncy and her husband Donald of Millerton, New York. Kelsey graduated with the class of 1999 from Webutuck High School in Amenia and from BOCES in 1999 with a certificate from the CNA program as well. She was a longtime member of the Lakeville United Methodist Church in Lakeville. On Oct. 11, 2003, in Poughkeepsie, New York, she married James Horton. Jimmy survives at home in Lakeville. Kelsey loved camping every summer at Waubeeka Family Campground in Copake, and she volunteered as a cheer coach for A.R.C. Cheerleading for many years. Kelsey also enjoyed hiking and gardening in her spare time and spending time with her loving family and many dear friends.
In addition to her husband and parents, Kelsey is survived by her two beloved children, Hunter Horton and Aryanna Horton, both of Lakeville; a step-brother, Jason Tuncy of East Hartford, Connecticut; her mother-in-law, Frances “Fran” Horton and her brother-in-law, Benjamin D. Horton III and his wife Penny of Bloomsburg, Pennsylvania, and their son, Alec, and several aunts, uncles, cousins and many dear friends. She was predeceased by her father-in-law, Benjamin D. Horton, Jr. in 2017.
There are no calling hours. A Celebration of Life will take place on Saturday, Oct. 25, 2025, from 11 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. at the Millerton American Legion Post # 178, Route 44, Millerton, NY 12546. A time to celebrate Kelsey and share stories and memories. Memorial contributions may be made to The Jane Lloyd Fund. Please make checks payable to Berkshire Taconic Community Foundation (please note in memo line, The Jane Lloyd Fund) and mail to: Berkshire Taconic Community Foundation, 800 N. Main Street, Sheffield, MA 01257.
To send an online condolence to the family, flowers to the service or to plant a tree in Kelsey’s memory, please visit www.conklinfuneralhome.com
Arrangements have been entrusted to the Scott D. Conklin Funeral Home, 37 Park Avenue, Millerton, NY 12546.
SHARON — On Sept. 27, Eliot Warren Brown was shot and killed at age 47 at his home in New Orleans, Louisiana, in a random act of violence by a young man in need of mental health services. Eliot was born and raised in Sharon, Connecticut, and attended Indian Mountain School and Concord Academy in Massachusetts. He graduated from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. He and his wife Brooke moved to New Orleans to answer the call for help in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina and fell in love with the city.
In addition to his wife Brooke, Eliot leaves behind his parents Malcolm and Louise Brown, his sisters Lucia (Thaddeus) and Carla (Ruairi), three nephews, and extended family and friends spread far and wide.
Normally at this point one might list some interests, but in Eliot’s case, it’s easier to list what he wasn’t interested in: watching sports.
Eliot made a living as a fine craftsman and carpenter, but at heart he was an artist. He was well versed in music, painting, literature, biking, travel, Mardi Gras costumes, poker, pranks, street performance and on and on and on.Having previously hiked the entire Camino de Santiago in Spain and Portugal, he recently achieved another dream of summiting the highest stratovolcano in North America.
Eliot’s creative ability was astounding. His creations were designed to bring joy to others. He didn’t seek recognition or praise, and a large part of his work was anonymous. Pieces of art would appear in the community, encouraging people to think, connect and enjoy.
From the precociously funny and determinedly defiant boy that grew up in the Northwest corner of Connecticut, Eliot grew into a brilliant, gentle souled, boundlessly creative, ever mischievous, perpetually scraggly, and astoundingly wise and caring man who made an indelible impact on those who were lucky to have him in their lives.
In honor of Eliot, please consider making donations to organizations that work to end gun violence, support the arts, or provide mental health services. A service will be held at the Congregational Church in Salisbury on Sunday Oct. 26 at 2 p.m.