Raise your hands. How many people learned about Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address when you were in school? Do you remember how it ends?

. . . that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain — that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom — and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.

Even Lincoln didn’t understand the concepts behind those words. Having successfully ended the Civil War, he sent his newly unemployed Union soldiers out west to slaughter as many Native Americans as they could find. Democracy, as he envisioned it, did not include the people whose land it was built upon.

Lincoln did understand that our democracy was a work in progress. In that Gettysburg Address, he also said that our country was “unfinished work,” and that we, the living, needed to devote ourselves to the cause of preserving the democracy.

That does not mean we can slough off the job onto the military and send them overseas to fight battles for democracy on foreign soil. It doesn’t mean electing rich white men to preserve the white culture. It means that you and I, the common folk, are responsible for embodying democracy.

Public schools have traditionally taught this concept in social studies and history classes. We learn that specific responsibilities and specific rights come with living in a democracy: Vote. Respect and obey federal, state, and local laws. Participate in your local community. Pay income and other taxes honestly, and on time, to federal, state, and local authorities.

We are also taught that we have a responsibility to respect the rights, beliefs, and opinions of others. Teachers and leaders have historically guided us to behave as if we cherish human rights and equality among people different backgrounds, ethnicities, religions and economic conditions.

Lately, that hasn’t been going so well.

This morning, as has happened so often these past three years, the day started with a viral video of a white woman having a meltdown in a Mexican restaurant because the manager spoke to his staff in Spanish. I guess she’ll eat an enchilada, though – as long as it’s called by some other name.

I am frightened by the number of people who seem to not want to live in a democracy. People who seem to want an exclusive government – for themselves, by themselves – rather than an inclusive one that is about all of us – a government of the people; a government for everyone who is striving to live their own best version of this American life, by those that best represent us.

I’m frightened by the anger – the explosiveness of white people’s reactions to someone speaking Spanish, someone in a hijab, someone black in a policing district dominated by whites. The explosiveness of conservative’s anger against progressives and the equally explosive anger of progressives against conservatives.

As soon as you start thinking that it is OK to categorize some people as less pure than you are, you’ve opened the door to being categorized yourself. One day it could be you. You could be the one who is looked upon with suspicion, your rights threatened, your opportunities curtailed, your pursuit of happiness suppressed.

That’s why we are seeing so much of this “angry white person” syndrome. Many white people are afraid that their turn has come, that the heightened visibility of diversity in government can only mean that white people are going to be marginalized the way white people have been marginalizing others. A fear that whites will be treated as harshly as they have been treating others.

We are seeing the feral spirit of the trapped animal. All it wants is to bite the hand trying to free it.

Who among us burns with the desire for equality these days? Who devotes time, energy and money to seeking equality for others? It isn’t the privileged class, that’s for sure. It isn’t the people who have never had to question their right to live life exactly as they see fit. It isn’t the ones who are disturbed by the sight of a person of color or the sound of a language other than English.

It’s the victims of discrimination who are fighting heart and soul for equality. Today’s freedom fighters are those who have been labeled as inferior and attacked through physical and policy violence: black and brown people, immigrants, handicapped people, indigenous people, poor people, veterans, homeless people, Muslims and Jews, the abused and the young victims of gun violence, the sick and the elderly, the incarcerated and members of the LGBTQ+ community.

The last thing they want is to start the cycle all over again by discriminating against others. Instead, they talk about the need to become a country where everyone is loved, everyone matters. Where everyone has the same right to respect and dignity as someone who is President, or someone who is CEO of the largest company in America. That means you, too, deserve to be treated with respect.

No matter who you are or what your life circumstances may be, these new voices for equality that are coming from all corners of our society care about you as much as they care about everyone else. They are in tune with the deepest meanings of democracy.

Right now, this democracy requires every one of us who has been able to live as a member of the privileged class to stop assuming that the work is done and our place at the top of some self-designed heap is forever. Pay attention to where and when you make assumptions about those you denigrate and look down upon, based on labels and classifications.

This country will grow into its promised democracy when everyone feels the responsibility to become a better citizen, when each person tries to embody the love of human rights and equality that is the backbone of our American values.

Okay. That was a little preachy. But then I see the twitter feed day after day lambasting new members of Congress – who are brown and Muslim – because they are speaking up for the rights of Palestinians.

This is a new development in the life of our democracy, to have members of Congress whose parents are from Palestine or members who wear hijabs. If their voices are causing consternation, it is not because of what they are saying, for they were duly elected to speak on behalf of their constituents.

The backlash is coming from the same alarm and panic felt by the white woman in the Mexican restaurant. People who are used to having only their own voices heard are suddenly realizing that other voices need to be part of the conversation.

The work continues.