Author: Pius Kamau
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Reflecting on our errors of judgment
The accounts of the four Muslim men recently killed in New Mexico led me to a standard declaration in my mind: there go anti-Muslim white supremacists again. Given recent American history of vilifying and killing Muslims, many in the small Albuquerque Muslim community were gripped by fear. Since 9.11 white supremacist terror attacks on Muslims…
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Colorado’s higher ed connects us globally
My American journey in medical and literary education began on the East coast where I spent half a decade in New York. With time, I progressively wended my way across North America to end up in the Rockies. “Colorado natives” often asked me, “why Colorado?” Travel from Africa was a bit too far for them.…
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COLUMN: Why didn’t parents know what their kids were up to?
Mass killings are now a regular feature of American life, and as we have recently seen, the gunmen involved are barely out of high school. The barely grown-up white men — they have all so far been white men — can hardly support themselves. Given their age, I have often wondered: Where were their parents…
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COLUMN: Rising lawmakers reflect immigrant America
In the recent primary elections I watched several candidates who stood for the U.S. Congress and the Colorado state legislature with particular interest. I point them out, out of the many from across the state, because two are of African descent, and the third is a first-generation Arab American whose parents were Palestinian refugees. One…
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COLUMN: Build where hospitals are needed most
The old “certificate of need” law keeps coming up in my mind as I see a large number of health-care facilities spring up in the Colorado corridor that follows the Rocky Mountains’ spine. Where the building is doesn’t always reflect where it can best serve the greatest need. Furthermore, I have always believed in health…
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COLUMN: Respecting the creatures who were here first
Man, it is believed, has dominion over all creatures on earth. To me, this is an outlandish presumption; one that has led man to do much destructive harm to his environment and the places where he lives. I am here thinking of my old home close to Mouth Kenya, and also the wooded Rocky Mountains…
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COLUMN: Lives lost stir memories of other losses
As the 1 million souls-lost-to-the-pandemic-in-America mark passed, many of us made mental notes and moved on with our daily chores. In other words, no gut-wrenching, tear-filled dirges to accompany such a profound national loss. These deaths didn’t seem to touch us as profoundly, because they died anonymously in ICUs accompanied through death’s portal by PPP-clad…
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GUEST COLUMN: Help minority kids excel at STEM, testing
A group of Coloradans has approached local universities, community colleges and school principals to discuss how institutions can work together to improve minority students’ performance on standard tests. We have had little success. The rationale for our endeavor is: For far too long, Black and Native American kids have been viewed as less bright than…
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GUEST COLUMN: Dick Lamm will be hard to replace
The praise and appreciation of some people never gets old, it’s almost like wine that gets better with time. I’m talking about Dick Lamm, who I have wanted to pay my heart felt tribute to but refrained from doing so immediately after his death as voices louder than mine, and esteemed men and women in…
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GUEST COLUMN: Refugees need Coloradans’ sustained support
Colorado will soon be welcoming our latest crop of refugees; these from Afghanistan. The Afghans who risked their lives working with Americans during the two-decade Afghanistan war are, for most of us, welcome guests. But between the flashing, welcome smile, and the first blush of “newness,” a day comes when we are reduced to the…