What We Learned From The Shutdown

Americans learned a lot during the partial government shutdown. Folks realized, for example, that they took the Smithsonian Institutions and Washington D.C.’s famous monuments for granted, and that you don’t truly appreciate a Panda Cam until it’s gone.

We all also learned about some surprising aspects of the federal government, and the many, often poignant, ways it touches people’s lives. Who knew that the the Department of the Treasury must approve the label and recipe for all new craft beers?

We posed the question to our online community: What did you learn from the shutdown? And we received many informative, frustrated and, at times, hilarious responses. Below, we share several of them with you:

We’ll continue to update this page as more responses come in. To submit yours via Twitter, please use the hashtag #TheShutdownTaughtMe.

(Jessica Pupovac is a producer on Morning Edition.)