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I MET a few interesting characters last week. Unsavoury, to say the least, but interesting all the same.

There were two things that stood out about our meeting.

The first came as a bit of a surprise: Gangsters read, too! And they apparently read enough of the paper to actually make it all the way through to this section.

The second thing was that they were not at all concerned about being gunned down ? as many of their former members have been.

I must admit, my number one fear is not death. That's my second fear.

Instead, it has everything to do with vanity.

I used to have this recurring nightmare about being involved in a car accident. I would walk out of the wreck unscathed ? except my teeth have all been smashed out.

Yes, my number one fear is losing my front teeth. Now, were it in my parents' time, when having perfectly healthy teeth knocked out was deemed fashionable, I may have felt differently.

Besides all of the negative connotations that go along with the good old hekkie bekkie, I've always been freaked out by false teeth.

My second greatest fear is not the certainty of death per se, but the way it's going to happen. With my luck, it will probably be a freak accident, as I am known to be absolutely clumsy at the best of times.

When I asked these interesting characters ? between fending off one of them insistent on getting me to go on a date ? if they feared the way they were going to die, they mostly appeared to feel it was a trivial matter.

As far as they were concerned, they chose that lifestyle and accepted the consequences, whatever they may be. As much as I disagree with their life choices, you have to acknowledge that more people should have that attitude.

Now, before everyone starts running out to join a gang, that's not what I mean.

All I'm saying is that accepting the consequences for our actions is seriously lacking these days.

Whenever something goes wrong, we immediately start the blame game. It's never our own fault. And because everyone's taking great care to be politically correct, they would never stand up and say, "Well, you brought this on yourself."

Instead, we feed the cycle of PC-ness and say, "Shame, don't worry, there was nothing you could have done differently."

Meanwhile, we all know exactly how different things could have been.

We all need to try and make better choices in life. If we can't do that, we must accept and take responsibility for the fallout.

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