Nobody ever worked as hard as my father. My father averaged maybe four hours of sleep at night, and when you're a kid, you don't realize that.

America traditionally represents the greatest possibility of someone's going from nothing to something. Why? In theory, if not practice, the government stays out of the way and lets individuals take risks and reap rewards or accept the consequences of failure. We call this capitalism - or, at least, we used to.

The No. 1 cause of preventable death for young black men is not auto accidents or accidental drowning, but homicide.

The formula for achieving middle-class success is simple: Finish high school; don't have a child before the age of 20; and get married before having the child.

To bring a child into the world that you cannot feed, clothe, house, and educate is the moral equivalent, in my opinion, of a drive-by shooting.

Optimism. It's not just a mind-set, it is behavior.

But did the Founding Fathers ever intend for the federal government to involve itself in education, health care or retirement benefits? The answer, quite clearly, is no. The Constitution, in Article I, Section 8 - which contains the general welfare clause - seeks to restrain federal government, not expand it.