Government is important.  But it is not your life.  If you are fretting over every tweet, every bit of alarmist media coverage, look back and see how inaccurate it all can be.  If you are hanging on every piece of legislation you once loved being rejected, or sweating the passing of every bill you hate, or fretting about every military threat in the world, you need a life.

Life is going on. You might miss it.

Even the two-party system, one half of which you may hate, wasn't intended by the Founding Fathers.  We vote, and time in office is limited by the people's judgment of success or failure.  Be aware, but I advise you to stop the hand-wringing, and stop fighting with your family or friends over presidents and decisions in the U.S. government.

We, the people of the U.S., are not Republicans, Libertarians, or Democrats; we are citizens who live here.  We are bound by a common love of country.  (If you don't love this country, then you need to travel more.  Observe real poverty.  I've seen people lined up, living in cardboard boxes in Lisbon.  Or try Argentina, Mexico, or Somalia.)  We have liberty to express our views – so much so that university students with ignorance and inexperience decide they will violently stop views they disagree with and spray-paint Theodore Roosevelt's statue.  (He is responsible for our parks and forests.)  We have the right to protest.  Try that in Cuba.

Because you have the right to protest doesn't mean your protest is appropriate.

Taking a knee in the NFL during the National Anthem really is more about the person doing it.  It accomplishes nothing.  It isn't progress.  It isn't noble.  A less narcissistic approach is actually committing oneself – maybe charitable funding of programs to a cause or verbally promoting it in a community or city.  Otherwise, such flamboyance is embarrassing.  Use your time to play the actual game fans pay you to make you millions.  Gratitude is more appropriate for what this country did for these millionaires.

Again, politics aren't our life.  It belongs in Washington.  And city problems should be handled by local officials.  Civil rights were won in the '60s.  I was there.  It was moving, unprecedented, and along with the gift of MLK, it was predominately whites in Congress who assured minorities those failsafe protections.

In the United States, we are not ruled by the U.N., E.U., or any global institution except the Supreme Court – the law of the land.  We elect officials for limited terms.  We allow them to vote for legislation as they debate issues in Congress, adolescent obstructionist tactics notwithstanding.  It is entirely imperfect.  But it has sufficient checks and balances to even out in time.

We have rights.  We do not have the "right" to a job.  We don't have the "right" to things we haven't worked for.  That is called entitlement,  Though some entitlements have a place, it isn't what made this the one superpower in the world.  Hard work and cooperation, against common enemies, did that.  Our forefathers, our fathers, our U.S. military died for our rights because they believed in the United States, with all of our flaws, and they believed in you.

We can expect certain things from government.  We shouldn't expect cradle-to-grave entitlements and a so-called "fair share" of the wealth – that is also communism and socialism and is a fallacious promise, never kept.  No such regime in the world has been successful.  The result was three of the greatest mass murderers in the world: Mao, Stalin, and Pol Pot.

Our Democratic-Republic means freedom, with liberty and protections for minorities by the force of law.  The politicians are elected on promises, and more than most other countries around the globe, they have delivered on most.

My final advice is to live your best life today, tomorrow, and the next.  Live a good productive life and love the people around you.  Be the one who remembers gratitude and forgiveness, which go a long way toward personal happiness.

I also tell my kids, "Never give away your personal power.  No one gets to judge you.  You decide."  That goes for life and politics.

Your life should not be complicated by daily media and government, by angst over politicians or day-to-day commentary and occurrences.

Yes, December 7, 1941 and 9/11 can happen again.  Until they do, remember: in a crisis, this country becomes unified.