You might have seen Sarah Palin’s supposed “funny” Facebook post about how the government shutdown will affect the country. With the government shut down, who will, “block responsible resource development, spy on me, waste my money…” she posted. The Alaskan chapter of Americans for Prosperity, the Koch brother-funded political group, also had fun with the federal-workers-are-worthless meme on its Facebook page.

Palin can afford to have fun, and the Koch brothers have enough money to buy fun all around. Others can’t. Not all Americans are spending their days in a Wasilla fortress or in mansions across the country. To some, the shutdown is life or death. The following heartbreaking paragraph from the The Wall Street Journal highlights what the government shutdown means for some Americans:

At the National Institutes of Health, nearly three-quarters of the staff was furloughed. One result: director Francis Collins said about 200 patients who otherwise would be admitted to the NIH Clinical Center into clinical trials each week will be turned away. This includes about 30 children, most of them cancer patients, he said.

Not so funny now, huh?

Contact Amanda Coyne at amandamcoyne@yahoo.com