Author: Pius Kamau
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As our neighbor’s keeper, we must intervene | Pius Kamau
On March 22, 2021, 10 Americans were killed while shopping at a Boulder King Soopers store by Ahmad Alissa. His defense claimed he was insane during the shooting. It resulted in psychotherapy, until eventually in August 2023, he was declared competent to stand trial. In September 2024 a jury found Ahmad guilty; he will spend…
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A man — even a doctor — cannot feel a woman’s pain | Pius Kamau
Like most physicians I have performed countless pelvic examinations, many of them using the metal speculum; a duck billed instrument with two arms that come together at a hinge. It’s usually inserted cold. Often it pinches the vaginal walls, occasionally causing tears. As a male physician I had no way to gauge the degree of…
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My first Broncos game left me frozen | Pius Kamau
The NFL season is upon the land. It reminds me of the first football game that I attended soon after I arrived in Colorado. I remember it well because of the circumstances of our attendance — my surgical Chief and I. After rounds at the hospital my boss said he had car troubles and asked…
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COLUMN: ‘Socialist’ an often misused word | Pius Kamau
A few decades ago conservative friends of mine called me a socialist to chastise me, for my newspaper commentaries and opinions I’d voiced in our conversations. To be called a socialist in America signifies a character fault; it calls for reform to align one’s opinions to their conservative friends’ viewpoint. I did nothing of the…
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Indian Americans have forged a place in America | Pius Kamau
In New York City I bought a Covid mask at a pharmacy owned by a South Asian family; two generations of American Indians worked in the shop serving customers. In Washington, DC, I checked an American Indian owned liquor store. On my way back to Colorado I visited a Dunkin Donuts at the airport and…
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The twilight zone of corporate medicine
Some things are hard to contemplate but contemplate them we must. Imagine you have severe chest pain that radiates to your jaw and left shoulder and think you are having a heart attack. Most people would probably call 911, but others afraid of incurring the steep cost of an ambulance ride are reluctant to do…
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A more humane approach to immigration | Pius Kamau
Seeing the masses of people sitting under bridges or walking en masse on the Southern border fills me with great sadness. These folks — men, women and children, families — come from great distances, from places not many Americans could ever live or survive living in. I empathize with them. Most will never make it…
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Cultivating more physicians of color | Pius Kamau
Colorado’s lawmakers recently gave a final approval to fund UNC’s — University of Northern Colorado’s — proposed college of osteopathic medicine; $127.5 million will be allocated toward construction startup. This is good news for northern Colorado and the whole state since the two existent medical schools have not made much of a dent in Colorado’s…
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In praise of a Catholic education | Pius Kamau
Two Black high school students proved the Pythagoras Theorem using trigonometry — an approach previously considered impossible. Calcea Johnson and Ne’Kiya Jackson, students at St. Mary’s Academy in New Orleans, presented their achievement at the American Mathematical Society’s meeting last year — they solved the theorem using the law of sines. Pythagoras Theorem states that:…
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COLUMN: Democracy — and American tune | Pius Kamau
It often sounds as if most of our fellow citizens’ conversations are an incessant complaint; disapproval of government contributing to our state of permanent unhappiness. Government falls flat, for what it has yet to do, in their opinion. To be clear, my opinion of my adopted country’s government is less critical than that of my…