Ned Luce

Here we go! Another way we can build factions on either side of whatever. The latest Centers for Disease Control guidelines for avoiding COVID state that those folks who are vaccinated need not wear the always-visible protective masks we have enjoyed for the past year. 

Those vaccinated will be able to differentiate themselves from the minority, at least a minority here in the remoteness known as Jefferson County where more than 50 percent of us have been vaccinated. 

The minority are strongly advised to continue to wear their masks in order to protect themselves from COVID. (Will they?) The vaccines have proven so powerful that those who are vaccinated need not wear masks anymore. 

Interestingly, I sense there is a strong impulse by those now in the majority to continue wearing the masks, probably to provide moral support to those still choosing to not get vaccinated. 

Then again, probably not. 

Change is hard. It was hard to get used to wearing the masks and it will be almost as hard to quit. 

First of all, what else are you going to do with all those masks you have collected the past year? BJ and I have almost as many masks in our inventory as I have in old Porsche magazines. 

Also of note is the several masks I paid good money to acquire. The one I bought at the Port Ludlow Golf course is the best. I really don’t think there is any market for used masks, even by those not yet vaccinated. Their value is similar to the golf sets we have straight out of the 1970s. BJ even has a bowling ball from out of the ‘60s. Useful yet worthless!

From the Leader on November 2015, leading off a story about the visit by Herve Claudon of Bruyères, France to Port Ludlow:

“In October 1944, after weeks of struggle in the wooded hills of the northeast corner of France, the 211 men of the 1st Battalion of the 141st Infantry found themselves cut off, surrounded by German forces. The situation looked bleak, but the 2nd and 3rd battalions of the Japanese-American 442nd Regimental Combat Team broke through the German lines to rescue the “Lost Battalion,” losing 800 men in the process.

The 442nd became the most decorated American unit during the war, with 14,000 men serving from April 1943 to the war’s end. The unit had 21 Medals of Honor and 9,486 Purple Hearts, earned while most of the recipients’ families were in internment camps.”

Barbara Berthiaume, a Japanese-American whose uncle Yohei Sagami was the first Japanese-American to die in the fighting in Bruyères, lives here in Port Ludlow and is well-known for her presentations to organizations throughout the Northwest. (I have seen it several times at Rotary and Port Ludlow meetings.) 

The center of her presentation revolves around the bravery and accomplishments of the 442nd. 

Furthermore, she notes the respect the people of Bruyères have for the 442nd. 

The author Daniel James Brown, who wrote “The Boys in the Boat” about the University of Washington crew team that won the Olympics in 1936, just released his new book, “Facing the Mountain,” about the 442nd. 

The subtitle is, “Facing the Mountain: A True Story of Japanese American Heroes in World War II.”

Last week the Wall Street Journal had a glowing review of the book and then  the Sunday issue of The Seattle Times had another review, equally as glowing. 

Well, I called my friend Barbara to tell her about the reviews and talk to her about the book. 

She excitedly informed me she was an “Ambassador” for the book. No, I do not know what an “Ambassador” is or does but she did have two copies of the book and offered to let me borrow one to read. 

So, BJ has now been hooked on it and says we will be buying a copy! No problem, we haven’t had an Amazon delivery in several days now.   

Love a curmudgeon and have a great week. 

(“The Pride of Poughkeepsie” because he wasn’t born there, Ned Luce is a retired IBM executive and Port Ludlow resident. Reach Ned at ned@ptleader.com.)