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Think of a pit bull raised from a puppy in the dark in a cellar, fed only every other day and beaten with a stick at every opportunity. The dog will grow up mean, and if it escapes some day, it will attack the first person it runs into. Is the dog’s behavior its fault? Yes and no. It did not cause its own anger; nor can it be expected to control it. But it is still a "bad" dog, however that meanness got programmed into it. The very word "fault" suggests why we get so confused over this issue. The word also means a crack in the earth, or a vase. If there is something wrong with an item, we say it has a "fault." Literally, the crack is the vase’s fault. The vase may not have caused the crack, but the fault is there nonetheless. We human beings all have faults we did not cause. They are our faults. And like the pit bull, we can be held responsible for our faults. Like the Fairfax principal and the pit bull, we can be separated from society and locked up, even forced to undergo reprogramming. But the principal, like the pit bull, also deserves our sympathy. "There but for the grace of God goes I" is a moral stance unlike "Throw all the evil people in jail so the world will be safe for us good guys." As Edwards said, being aware of our mutual contingency ought to make us all more tolerant.