And, although new laws are passed every year, we remain one of the few countries with enormous freedom of religion, politics, and belief systems. Many people die for independence. I remember one time, as a young boy helping out in the garden with my brother, when we had trapped gophers. By accident, we caught a squirrel. I have heard some people say that you can smell freedom in the air in America.
Independence is about freedom.
Independence is also about being separate from rule of a governing authority - the concept of taxation without representation. The original idea of forming statehood under a united front of democracy came from several places. At that time, there was also a system of democracy among the Iroquois, an indigenous tribe of nations. The Iroquois had five faction nations which were continually at war with one another. The tribes voted to form a nation, called the Iroquois, to designate rules for living together, farming, and hunting.