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Source: Doug G and Julia S – Al-Anon Opening Remarks and Twelve Steps (1968).mp3 File: doug-g-and-julia-s-al-anon-opening-and-twelve-steps-1968.mp3 Duration: 00:11:45
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God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference. My name is Manuel B., the great friend of Al-Anon. Some smart addict came up here a few minutes ago, excuse me, because I'm a tolerant man, he says, please learn who is the chairman today. And I told him I would try. I thought he wanted me to announce the meeting at the synagogue tonight, I knew it was Friday, but I didn't know what he wanted.
Again, the Al-Anon breakfast at 8.30 tomorrow morning in Independence C. Those tickets are $2.75, and by golly, let's get out there and get them as soon as possible. The speaker, most of you know, is Peggy W. from North Miami, Florida. And this meeting is for everyone, not just Al-Anons, every alcoholic possible. Try and come to this meeting. Let's have a big crowd there and, of course, buy these tickets as quickly as possible at the registration desk.
And again, the buffet. I said something last night also, I thought I was writing what was being said, but we need 500 at least, 500 tickets for this buffet, and these tickets are $5.25. It's going to be a terrific dinner. In fact, I'm going to read the menu to you. I hope you're hungry while I'm reading it. Oh, boy, I can't even read it. Beef stroganoff, rice pilaf, seafood Newberg, garden peas, assorted cheese and cold cuts, fruit salad coleslaw, cottage cheese, pickle beets, potato salad, gelatin molds, relishes, pickles and olives, assorted tarts, rolls and beverages, horseradish, and kosher pickles.
I added that. So I'll see that you get the kosher pickles, too. And let's try and be there for this dinner. This is in Independence A and B. The next meeting, most of you know, will be at 2 o'clock today here. Nothing more. We will now get down to serious business. And our chairman for the day, who's been a change in that, too, is my good friend from South Carolina, Doug G. from Spartanburg. Now, give you Doug.
Thank you, Matty. Hi, everybody. It's nice to be starting another day of the time today. As Matty said, my name is Doug. I'm a member of an Al-Anon group in Spartanburg, South Carolina. I would like to say something that I think needs saying, particularly at an assemblage like this. All mates of alcoholics or AA members are not Al-Anons, and all Al-Anons are not mates of alcoholics or Al-Anon members.
I think it is important for us to remember that. I do not sit in judgment on those mates of AA members who do not choose to affiliate themselves with Al-Anon, who prefer to ride on the coattails of their mates. I do not sit in judgment on them. But I have such a high regard and such gratitude for this wonderful fellowship of Al-Anon that I'd like to make it clear that sometimes such mates misrepresent themselves.
And to us in Al-Anon, it is pretty easy to spot them and make the distinction. There are more than 3,000 Al-Anon family groups all over the world made up of relatives and friends of alcoholics who realize that by banding together they can better solve their own problems. We come to understand that alcoholism is an illness, and not only is it an illness but it is a family illness,
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and that we are just as much in need of help as the alcoholic.
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Al-Anon family groups make up a fellowship of men and women whose lives have been or are being disturbed by another's compulsive drinking. And I might say parenthetically that we learn to do that without attaching any blame or stigma to the person who suffers from this illness of compulsive drinking. The members share experience, strength, and hope with each other in a continuing effort to achieve serenity.
The Al-Anon program is essentially a personal reorientation process based on 12 steps barred, and AA graciously permitted us to bar the 12 steps, and also on the 12 traditions of Al-Anon. The groups of Al-Anon meet to discuss the problems created by the illness of alcoholism. It is an informal fellowship. Its members offer neither advice nor pity. They do, however, offer an emphatic atmosphere in which the non-alcoholic comes to recognize his or her own faulty attitudes, which may be aggravating the family difficulties.
Al-Anon offers its members a group therapy in which the non-alcoholic, baffled by a problem not of his or her own making, can find peace of mind and hope for the future. You know, I'm having a hard time with my humility this morning. Being a South Carolinian, we sort of got them outnumbered. The anonymous voice of the conference, who is a little confused, you know, Columbia, South Carolina, is our state capital.
It's almost in the geographical center of the state, and it's the largest city in the state. Well, there are two communities adjoining Columbia. One is east over, and that's where Manny B. is from, and he claims that Columbia is a suburb of east over. And the lady that I'm going to call on to read our 12 steps is from another community adjoining Columbia called Casey, C-A-Y-C-E. They also say that Columbia is a suburb of Casey.
Really, I think it is. You know, I've heard, as Marty said yesterday, I've heard members of the A.A. say that they are glad they are alcoholics. As Marty said, it took me a long time to understand that. Well, I'm damn glad I'm an alumni. There are a lot of adjectives and nouns that we can use, and if they were used in any other fellowship, they would sound trite. But by gosh, here I am up in front of a beautiful bank of flowers, and I have the privilege of introducing two of the most charming, gracious, lovely, and pretty ladies I ever saw in my life.
I'm going to ask our present state delegate, Julia S., from Casey, South Carolina, to read the 12 steps of Al-Anon, which were barred, as I say, from A.A. There's only one word change, and I'm sure Julia will mention that. Julia? Hi, everybody. What Doug's trying to tell you, in effect, is South Carolina's more or less taking over all the clout this morning, and I hope you like it. I know you're in for a treat.
My name is Julia S., and I am from Casey, South Carolina, and I want to thank Doug for asking me to share the part of the program with you this morning. The 12 suggested steps of Al-Anon are, one, we admitted we were powerless over alcohol, that our lives had become unmanageable. Two, came to believe that a power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity. Three, made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we understood him.
Four, made a certain and fearless moral inventory of ourselves. Five, admitted to God, to ourselves, and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs. Six, were entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of character. Seven, humbly ask him to remove our shortcomings.
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Eight, made a list of all persons we had harmed and became willing to make amends to them all. Nine, made direct amends to such people wherever possible, except when to do so would injure them or others. Ten, continued to take personal inventory, and when we were wrong, promptly admitted it. Eleven, sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God as we understood him, praying only for the knowledge of his will for us and the power to carry that out.
Twelve, having had a spiritual awakening as a result of these steps, we tried to carry this message to others and to practice these principles in all our affairs. Thank you. Thank you so much, Julia. You know, in these wonderful fellowships of Al-Anon and AA, it's not necessary to know someone personally to be distressed when tragedy touches. For those of you that don't know, word was received yesterday that the scheduled speaker, the speaker shown on the printed program, as I understand it, a tragic accident occurred in his family and his wife is in very critical condition.
That's the reason he isn't here. And I'm sure we will all want to remember Bob and those affected in our prayers.