“In this world,
Hate never yet has dispelled hate.
Only love dispels hate.
This is the law,
Ancient and inexhaustible.”
My younger brother (John) had brought me to one of his “Best Buddies” events, a companionship program for adults with intellectual or developmental disabilities. We pulled up to the front of the building where the event was being held, and he stopped the car. “Nick there is something I have to tell you. These people are just the way that they are. You have to just decide before you go in there – whether or not you are going to accept them and love them as they are ... because they can't change and there's nothing you can do that is going to make them be any different.”

It was not something totally unexpected for bringing in a first timer to an event for people with developmental and intellectual disabilities. For me it has always been the case that people with such obvious handicaps as Down-syndrome have easily escaped my judgment and blame for transgressions. I could never see myself being anything but loving and accepting of them. It seems to be another story entirely though with people I consider "normal," the vast majority of whom at any moment may do or say something sparking my condemnation or blame.

I could no longer reconcile the discrepancy. With nothing but a simple label of the mind, there became no place in my heart for blame or judgment and yet with a different label, I could justify untold discrimination. Yet to what degree, I wondered, was the so-called “average person” 100% neurologically perfect, if in fact there is such a thing? And if so what would be the measure?

The problem of measuring people's level of intellectual or developmental disability is for me the same problem as identifying a universal age at which non-disabled people become culpable adults. Children too, I have come to learn about myself, could never do any wrong in my eyes, for “they don't know any better.” The opposite proves to be true for those lucky individuals who qualify for my label of “adult.”

18 is the magic number," says our society. "17!" shouts our justice system. "21" argues the alcohol, tobacco, and firearm regulatory bodies. Meanwhile, voices in other cultures say, "17, no 15!"

But what if no one ever becomes all knowing and everyone acts out of their ignorance at least to some degree? - A dangerous idea in a sociopolitical system benefiting more from serving after the fact justice than preventing crimes fueled by hate and discrimination.
That no one is omniscient or all-knowing is a truth which many consider self-evident, and not requiring further validation. Yet it seems for many, as it did for me before this experience, that this truth is only recognized at the intellectual level.  As it turned out for me, there were other deeper levels of knowing at which I did not yet recognize it.
Having grown up religious, and being a student of mythology, I had heard of the “Kerostasia” of the ancient Greeks, the “Weighing of Souls” of the ancient Egyptians, and was familiar with the biblical adage from the crucifixion scene, “Father forgive them; they know not what they do.” Obscured by their archetypal and non-intellectual form, any positive trans-formative powers these myths and religious symbols may have once held had been long lost to the overwhelming taste of religiosity and dogma. That is until now.

Many native and ancient cultures revered individuals born with what we call intellectual or developmental disabilities, considering them spiritually significant. Likewise, here they represented for me a symbol carrying the power of all the former myths, capable of conveying this truth on much deeper levels, that permeated my entire being.

“To what degree then ...” I wondered, “ is anyone really culpable, that is,