Independence is about a whole lot more than firing up the barbecue, drinking some beer with friends, and shooting off fireworks. It's about more than blindly waving a flag.

It's about the way we live our lives every single day. And 241 years later, independence is still the most revolutionary act you can commit.

Now, regardless of how you feel about this administration or the previous one, I think we can all agree that many of the liberties our parents took for granted are now in trouble.

The government, in general, cannot be trusted. The media cannot be trusted.  Those agencies that make all the onerous rules "to keep us safe" cannot be trusted.

Real liberty is up to you. Use it or lose it.

Many Americans are completely dependent upon the work of others to survive.

I've often written about how we've become a nation of consumers instead of a nation of producers, and with that decline in productivity, we have lost much of the freedom we once treasured.

This is because they are not independent. They are the opposite of that – they're dependent.

• Their food comes in little cartons that have been inspected and labeled as safe, despite the numerous carcinogens and unpronounceable chemicals within.

• Their meat is raised in horrific conditions in a facility crowded in with other animals. These animals are so sick and stressed that they have to be constantly medicated and treated with hormones to make them grow faster and keep them alive until slaughter time. Those chemicals pass on to the consumer, of course.

• Their fruits, vegetables, and grains are doused with a chemical so carcinogenic that it isn't allowed to be used in Europe and one state has insisted that all food so treated must be labeled as potentially carcinogenic.

• Their medicine comes from the pharmacy. They purchase it for enormous sums of money after a doctor's visit that isn't actually covered by the massively expensive insurance they are forced to buy, so he's paid from their pocket too.

• Their utility usage is without thought. Their heat comes from a dial, their water comes from a faucet, and their electricity comes from those little plugs in the wall. If for some reason those things worked no longer, most people would have no idea how to function.

• Their children learn at a state-sponsored school what the state wants the children to know. Practical skills that will get them through life, like shop class or home economics, are now ignored and have been replaced with classes on social justice and health, which is far from anything in the health classes of the past.

• Their HOAs, cities, and communities pass rules about how their property can and cannot be used. These rules state that they can't grow food in their own yards, they can't raise hens for fresh eggs, and they can't even hang laundry on the line to dry outside their homes.

• Their right to freely travel is infringed upon by thugs with the power to touch them inappropriately, go through their luggage, and make them miss their planes if they do not comply. They have to take off their shoes, earrings, and belts and walk through a metal detector to get on a plane.

• Each year, fees are extorted from them so that larger fees won't be extorted. They pay fees to live on the property they purchased. They pay fees to drive the cars that they own, to have a license that confirms they know how to drive, to own a business, and in some places, to do something as simple as selling the eggs their backyard hens produce. If they're caught skipping the payment of those fees, they can be kidnapped and put in a cage until they've learned their lessons.

And yet, they comply. They truly believe that this is what freedom looks like. When they lose freedoms they comfort themselves with, "This is the price we pay to live somewhere safe and civilized."