I always remember my dad's blue overalls and the blue overcoat he wore in winter, and I remember my mum's big old Afro. Sometimes, though, in my memories, smudges have replaced their faces.

My memory is not that good anymore.

I've had a pretty chequered past, you know, as a kid, as a troubled kid.

My whole career's been an underdog's.

When my Mexican-born grandfather, Rafael, immigrated to work in the mines of the American Southwest, where he eventually settled with his young bride to raise 15 kids, he did it to give his children a better life.

I'm as strict as my parents - I have high expectations, too. I'd never ask the kids to do something outside their capabilities, but I'll encourage them not to be lazy and to try hard.

If you aren't talking to your kids about socialism, someone else is. So use car time, dinner time, tax preparation time, and time spent together at your work or small business to teach your child about the virtues of capitalism, the system of government that has lifted more people out of poverty.

It occurred to me that my family had achieved the American Dream, from being poor to starting a business to giving me and my brother an amazing education. It's one reason I joined the Air Force, because I believed I can never give back to America what America has given to my family and me.