Maybe it does not mean what we had always thought it should mean.
Celebrate! Take the family out, and have a great time. Wave the flag, blow off some fireworks, But proudly give the finger to big government types everywhere. And don’t limit that last to just a single day in the middle of summer.
Kids in our public schools are not likely taught the truth of the cause of the revolution, but it was not hard to understand, and was spelled out succinctly in the declaration of independence. Colonists had enough. They were done with being pushed around.
The king was a schmuck, the power he claimed over the colonies was not earned, not justified, nor could it be respected. So we flipped him the bird, and wrote him a break up letter.