The "systemic poison of white privilege and racism"

Looking for updates yesterday on the massacre by a young white supremacist of 10 predominately black shoppers and employees at a Buffalo, N.Y., supermarket, I came across this line on Twitter from Susan Russell, an Episcopal priest and activist based in Pasadena:

"The wolves of white supremacism are never 'lone.' They are surrounded by, supported by and sustained by -- fed, watered and fertilized by -- the systemic poison of white privilege and racism that infects our nation."

And by other factors, too, including a cultural love affair with guns that has blossomed into a systemic cult.

A developing American celebration of ignorance in a world where understanding is needed to navigate the complexities.

Obsession with the sanctity of fetal tissue at the expense of equal concern about the sanctity of life in general.

And the poison that still flows through the veins of many self-described Christians who, having created a god in their own image, invoke it to divide humanity into the redeemed and the lost, the worthy and the not.