Imagine Edina completely flooded, houses and everything in them destroyed, the grocery store has no edible food, and other people are of no help because they are just as bad off, or perhaps worse. Around “Edina” is a border of unscalable walls, so there is no escaping this disaster zone and help will be delayed. Criminal lunatics with guns are roaming this waste, and surprisingly, they are the only ones offering aid. This aid comes at the high price of freedom.

Multiply this scene by 400! Twenty million people in Pakistan are faced with this situation due to major flooding. Though they are not walled in, they are surrounded by mountains; those criminals are the Taliban, the very people the U.S. has been fighting in the war against terror. They are offering aid so that Pakistanis see them as saviors and the old government, which has been slow to provide aid, as the enemy. Additionally, the first case of cholera, highly contagious disease that causes profuse vomiting and diarrhea, has been reported. Experts fear that this and other water borne diseases may rise to epidemic level because of the lack of clean drinking water.

So what are we, the U.S., doing to help Pakistanis? The U.S.has so for donated $60 million in aid toPakistan, second only to China. As a state, Minnesotans not currently providing any aid. Likewise, here at the high school there are no projects to help Pakistan. The resource coordinator, Valerie Burke, at the Edina Resource Center, the “one-stop” spot for finding local services and support, remarked, “We haven’t received the same response as we did for the Haiti disaster”. Edina and the local charities are not providing aid and people are wondering why.

The Twin Cities Red Cross is accepting donations, visit their chapter or go online to their website, www.redcrosstc.com, to donate.