DICOBE-00012 – David A – TALKS ON TWELVE TRADITIONS – 1984-12-15

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And only because of God's grace of American Alcoholics Anonymous, I have not found it necessary to, nor have I taken a drink of an alcoholic major since April 20, 1967, and for this I am so thankful. And first of all, I want to thank whoever is responsible for allowing me to come and share me with you and you with me. And so we have a lot of time this afternoon, and we'll have a lot of fun if you want to have a lot of fun.

When we get into our traditions in Alcoholics Anonymous, a lot of times, a lot of our members, they say, oh no, you know, good God, that's something else. And, but basically, one of the reasons is the fact that those who do that, believe it or not, and this is not inventory taking, is they're still miserable in Alcoholics Anonymous, and they really don't enjoy what has brought all this about. And, you know, I love to go and look in there and see when the book came to Arkansas and things like that.

And many members of Alcoholics Anonymous, we're, you know, we're satisfied, a lot of us, in going to our meetings and, you know, coming a little ahead of time and then doing a few 12-step calls and then going out and eat ice cream, you know. God, if you don't have coffee at a meeting, you've got the most disgruntled folks in the world, and I can understand it. I do, because I love the coffee myself, and particularly a drunk, if he's got a dollar in his pocket, and he owes that dollar, and he's promised someone he's going to pay that dollar the next morning at 8 o'clock, but if ice cream comes first, and it doesn't make a bad damper, and, you know, it's a funny thing, they talk about hypoglycemia, hyperglycemia, have you ever seen them eat ice cream?

They go in and they say, now, I want nuts, and I want every kind of sauce you got, four dips, and everything else, and that's a drunk, and that's just the kind of folks we are. And so when we get into our traditions, you know, a lot of times, as I say, they, for some reason or another, whatever it may be, they feel rather uncomfortable. Now, before I start, and since this is on tape, I want to make sure it's on tape, and I think it is necessary that we have it on tape, that no one speaks for Alcoholics Anonymous as a whole.

No one has that right, no one has that authority, and no one has been delegated as such. We just merely share our experiences, and I hope that I share my experiences with you, and as a result of my life, as a result of the traditions in Alcoholics Anonymous, or in any part of Alcoholics Anonymous, and not our opinions, because let's share our experiences and not our opinions, because opinions kill people.

And the most precious commodity that we've got to offer any human being that comes to Alcoholics Anonymous, for the alcoholic, is life itself. And, you know, you get to playing around with people's heads, and in AA, we talk about how many lives we've saved, but we don't talk about how many we've killed with misinformation, telling them things will happen to them. We don't know it'll happen to them, you know. In AA, everybody's got the freedom to be ourselves as we are.

Now, many, many, every meeting, we hear it on a daily basis, and we hear it, read it a lot of times, and the Alcoholics Anonymous is a fellowship of many women who share their experience, strength, and hope with each other that they may solve their common problem and help others recover from alcoholism, which is nothing more than a combination of Tradition 1 and 5. The only requirement for membership is a desire to stop drinking.

Tradition 3, there are no dues or fees for AA membership. We are self-supporting to our own contributions. Tradition 7, AA is not allied with any sect, denomination, politics, organization, or institution. Tradition 6, neither endorses nor opposes any causes. Tradition 10, our primary purpose is to stay sober and help other alcoholics to achieve sobriety. Tradition 5, and so, you know, every member of Alcoholics Anonymous that comes to AA today is given three legacies.

In the first legacy, it wasn't that way when AA first started, and it wasn't that way until our traditions were adopted in 1950, basically, although they were written in the 40s by Bill, and at the first international convention in Cleveland in 1950, and then later, in 1955, at the international convention, then our third legacy was adopted, although the general service conference, basically, on an experimental basis for the first four to five years was in 1951. And so, every member of Alcoholics Anonymous that comes to, or every alcoholic who comes to AA, rather,

[00:05:00]

today is given three legacies as a gift, and the first legacy is recovery, and the second legacy is unity, our traditions, and the third legacy is service, which basically is the authorization and creation of our general service conference, and then after that, why the 12 concepts were written, or 12 concepts for our world service. And so, when we come to AA, and a lot of them, you know, and so our, the second legacy are unity, our traditions, and in AA, we hear it all the time, and it's read how it works, but the traditions, we have come to find out why it works.

And also, we're going to have most of the afternoon to do this, and so if there's any questions that any of you would like to ask, feel free to do it. There is no question that's too little or too insignificant to anybody in Alcoholics Anonymous, even though you may feel that it may be, you know, controversial in nature, or whatever it is, but you have to remember, we are controversial in nature, period. That's the reason we're here.

You know? That's the reason we're here. We're here because nobody else wanted us. That's the reason why. And AA got started because nobody wanted them drunks, and they found out if they could want each other, then they could spread this message to those that nobody wanted. We're kind of like the unwashed, you know? And this is about the way it is. And so very implicitly and throughout AA's traditions is the admission that our fellowship has its defects, and the reason for it, because it's composed of nothing but 100% defects, you know?

And we're not here because of, you know, we're not brothers of virtue. We're brothers of defects of character and our willingness to have them removed under the power and love and guidance of a power greater than ourselves. So when you've got a fellowship that's composed of 100% sick people, you know, with all our little petty grievances and our resentments and our hates and our angers and our feeling sorry for ourselves and boo-hoo, then it spreads into the fellowship.

And so we admit that we not only have character defects as a society, but these defects threaten us continuously. So our traditions are a guide to better ways of working and living, and they're also the medicine for our various group sicknesses. And don't kid yourself that groups don't get sick. Oh, they get sick. Whole groups get drunk. You know, one of the early days of AA, there was a group, which is now, and formed out in Southern California, and the first group out there.

And they didn't have about 12, 14, 15 members, and they got a call from a gal, and she's out there in one of them tourist courts. Now, that dates me, you know. And so they didn't have any women in AA, so one of them volunteered to go. Well, he never come back, so they went out to check on him. Well, he enjoyed her company so much, he started drinking with her, you know. And so they sent a third one out there, and he didn't come back.

So they sent another one, and all three of them were drunk. The fourth one never come back. And then finally, the whole group went. The whole group got drunk, and they all got sober together. And that's how they got basically the first gal sober in Alcoholics Anonymous in Lower California. You know, and nobody wanted her, and they're the only ones that joined in with her, so she had no choice but to pick up her mattress and go with them, you know, and that's the way it was.

And so, as a result of it, you know, and the groups get sick. They get real sick. They get to arguing about money, and they get to arguing about, you know, if you got to have a smoke eater. And then they got to argue—one of the worst arguments I've ever been in a group was if they're going to move the telephone from that wall over to this wall. And, you know, and that's how new groups get started. And, you know, when you got two cats fighting, all you're going to have is more kittens.

That's the way it works in AA, and that's how we spread. And so the 12 traditions are to group survival and harmony. What AA's 12 steps are to each member's sobriety and peace of mind. But the 12 traditions also point straight at many of our individual defects. For by practical application, they ask for personal as well as group sacrifice. They ask us never to use the AA name in any quest for personal power or distinction of money.

And the traditions guarantee the equality of all members and the independence of all groups. Thank God. Thank God that AA is all-inclusive and not exclusive. And each group has the freedom to be itself as it is, just like every member of Alcoholics Anonymous is given. After sobriety, we are given the greatest freedom as a human being that the world has ever known.

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And we can be ourselves as we are. Before I come to Alcoholics Anonymous, I almost died drunk. People would say, why don't you be like your daddy, like your mama, like your brother, like your neighbor, like your enemy, like this, that. And the harder I tried, the worse it got. And the worse it got, the harder I tried. And I come to Alcoholics Anonymous, and they said, David, you don't have to be like anybody else.

Just be your stinking, rotten, sober self. And I said, you kidding? And they said, no. Because in AA, nobody can punish you. Nobody can sentence you. Nobody can make you do penance. Nobody can force you to believe anything. If you don't drink alcohol one day at a time, and you say you're a member, you're in. That's all there is to it. And that's almost impossible to believe. Because out there in that world out there, they don't operate that way.

And after we get sober in AA, we can't stand that freedom. We want to change it. We want to put rules and regulations, who can belong, who can't belong, you know. Whether they're polka-dotted, whether they're straight, whether they're crooked, whether they're gay, whether they're half-and-half, or whatever it is, you know. Whether they're closeted, uncloseted, rooftops. Don't make no name. Everybody's got to start doing a little picking.

We can't stand the freedom to be ourselves, or to let anybody else be ourselves. And so they ask us never to do those things. Because they show us, the traditions also show us how we can best relate ourselves to each other and to the outside world. And the traditions also indicate how we can best function in harmony as a great whole. And so for the sake of the welfare of our entire society, the tradition just simply asks, pardon me, that every member, every group, every district, every area, every region, every country in AA shall lay aside all desires, ambitions, and unwanted actions that could bring among us a serious division, or lose from us the confidence of the world.

At large, many, many members do not realize how well AA is respected. Maybe that is Alcoholics Anonymous and what it stands for. Maybe some of our members are not well respected in the world, but then after all, you know, we're not slings. And as a result of it, back in the old days in AA, when the United Nations moved from San Francisco to its present site, in the United Nations headquarter in New York City, one of the first ones to address the United Nations was former President Herbert Hoover.

And he got up and for 20 minutes he talked to them about the United Nations and the conditions in the world. And he also, but for most of the 20 minutes, he spoke to the United Nations on the subject about, he found that there was a fellowship with a set of principles. And the fellowship was called Alcoholics Anonymous. And if the world would live by the principles that AA has for its recovery program and its fellowship and its philosophy, that the world would be the finest place in the world to live in.

Now this is back in the days when television was in its infancy, and most of the communication media in the world in those days was radio, and there's always a bunch of drunks that are sitting around doing nothing, buying railroads and airlines and all this and all that, and they were listening to the radio. And they said, you hear what that man just said, Herbert Hoover? Why, he was telling the United Nations that this would be the greatest world to live in if the world would live by the principles of Alcoholics Anonymous.

And they said, well, we're the only one. Let's go up and tell Bill. And back when Bill was alive, Bill, they'd go to Bill for everything. And so they borrowed somebody else's car, they borrowed some money to put gas in somebody else's car, they borrowed some money for some cigarettes, and off they went up to Westchester County, up to Bedford Hills. And they come running in there, and Bill was back in his little house where he used to do his writing, and they ran up there, and they were wild-eyed looking.

And Bill says, what's up, boys? And meanwhile, the story had changed from the time they had left downtown New York. It had changed from the time they had left downtown New York till they got up there to Bedford Hills.

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You know, us drunks, we don't lie, we just embellish a little bit. And they said, Bill, old Herbert, now he went from former President Herbert, who was old Herbert, old Herbert was down there at the United Nations, and he was telling them that by God, if the world didn't live by them, the world would blow up. Well, said, lived by what? He said, the principles of AA. And Bill, we're the only ones that know anything about Alcoholics Anonymous.

And Bill, and Anna knew Bill, and met Bill, and heard Bill, and he was a real drunk. I mean, a real, just a real drunk. And smoke, you talk about, now he, now I'm going to tell you something. He had a real smoker, alcoholic smoker's cough. One of them kind that would start at your toenails and come all the way up. And you'd have an aftershock for five minutes, you know, just going, going, going, going.

And old Bill, with that long turkey neck of his, and smoking them cigarettes, and he even got excited and said, well, Bill, guess what? If we're asked to run the world, we're the only ones that know anything about AA. And we're going to be, here we are, we're going to be in striped breeches, and we're going to be in swallowtail coats, and them celluloid collars, you know, with them wings turned up, and be riding around in them big limousines with flags on the front, having diplomatic immunity.

We can park in front of fireplugs and speed all we want to. Go through red lights and everything. And Bill, he got excited. Can't you just see a bunch of drunks running the United Nations, you know? And you turn on your television in the morning, and this announcer comes on, and he's in shadow. He said, good morning, world. My name is David A., and I'm an alcoholic. And we're down here at the United Nations, and we're going to open this meeting this morning with a moment of silence followed by the serenity prayer.

And for you civilians who don't know the serenity prayer, the words will come along the bottom of the screen, and y'all can say it with us. And after the serenity prayer, we're going to read a portion of Chapter 5, How It Works. And the ambassador from Russia is still having a tough time understanding it, so we're going to ask him to read a portion of Chapter 5, How It Works. And on the agenda today will be honesty, open-mindedness, and willingness.

And we'll be sure and return to this television station at 5 o'clock for a very important news announcement, because we understand confidentially that the ambassador from Iran is going to take his fist up with the ambassador from Iraq, you know? And then the bell said, wait a minute. Oh, wait a minute, boys. Wait a minute. They estimated about that time how many millions of alcoholics there are in the world.

Nine and a half, a million, twelve, you know. They're kind of like AA membership, you know. We're kind of like the Baptist church, you know. Once we get on the rolls, you never get off, you know. Whether you're a sinner, saved sinner, died sinner, or a flying sinner, it don't make no difference. But in AA, we don't keep those kind of records because we really don't know. When the sun went up all over the world this morning, a lot of members are sober in AA.

But when the sun goes down at 5 o'clock this evening all over the world, a lot of them that woke up this morning that are members of AA won't be members of AA. That's how little we know about stopping drinking, you know. And so Bill got excited. Wait a minute. Wait a minute, boys. He says, you know what? He said, we're not all things for all people. We've got all we can do to take care of our own kind.

And so the twelve traditions, and I'll tell you another experience, of how the world and what the world thinks about us, the heads of states and governments. At the World Service meeting, which was held in 1982 in Mexico City, outside of Mexico City, and I've had the wonderful experience of being your delegate to the World Service meetings, and the one in 1982 in San Juan del Rio, Mexico, and in this last October, in this past October, in New York City.

We have it every two years. And every fourth year, it's back in the United States. And every other year, every other fourth year, it's outside the North American continent. And so, and delegates from all over the world attend that have a service structure. And as a result, when it was announced it was going to be in Mexico, one morning, our general manager was received a transatlantic cable call, a telephone call, from South Africa.

And the two would-be delegates from South Africa were on the phone, explaining to our general manager

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that they would not be able to attend the World Service meeting in Mexico, because South Africa and Mexico did not have diplomatic relations, due to their political climate that they have down there. And they wouldn't be able to come. And while this conversation was going on, we had a visitor in the office, a member of AA, and Bob saw him, he said… And he listened to this conversation, and after it was over with, this member asked Bob what's going on, and Bob explained to him about the fact of the World Service meeting.

And these two delegates called about their concern that they could not come, because they simply couldn't get in. And that's all Bob said. And the member said, thank you for sharing this thing with me, and he left. And he went back to his job. Well, he happened to be the second-highest-ranking paid permanent employee of the United Nations. And he went immediately to the ambassador to the United Nations from Mexico, and he walked in and he said, you know…

He said, you know, I'm a member of Alcoholics Anonymous. Because we got that dingy son of yours sober and straight, when nobody else wanted to fool with him. And he said, you know, we got this World Service meeting in Mexico City, and we're not allied with any sect, denomination, politics, organization. And our two delegates that would normally come to that from South Africa can't come in because they can't clear immigration.

You have no diplomatic relation. He said, now I want you to call down there and get that thing straightened out. He said, well, I'll have to call what corresponds to your Secretary of State in the United States. He said, well, call him. He did. And the ambassador explained to the Secretary of State of Mexico what the situation was. He said, oh, wait a minute. Uh-uh. This will have to either take…

It'll have to go before what we correspond to the Mexican legislature, or a presidential order. And he said to him, well, at least see what the President of Mexico will do. It's urgent. So the Secretary of the State of Mexico, whatever it is, he got a hold of Portillo, and he told Portillo the situation. And Portillo picked up the telephone, and he called his friend, and he says, friend, this is Portillo.

Are you still connected with that AA business? Well, the gentleman that he called is a lawyer, perhaps one of the outstanding international lawyers in the world, a non-alcoholic, who at that time, and who still is, is Chairman of the Board of the General Service, a board of Alcoholics Anonymous of Mexico. Now, this non-alcoholic, he met another world-famous international lawyer at an international lawyers' convention in London, who started talking to him about that he was involved with this thing called Alcoholics Anonymous and has been since the early 40s.

A gentleman by the name of Bernard Smith, who was perhaps a world, one of the best world international lawyers, Chairman of the Board of one of the largest banks in the world, a lawyer and also was a long-time Chairman of the General Service Board of Alcoholics Anonymous of our country, of North America, and the old Alcoholic Foundation. In fact, Bernard Smith did most of the legal work for our entities and also our incorporation and bylaws, etc., etc., etc., and had a lot to do with basically checking out the 12 concepts that Bill wrote and several other things.

And so this lawyer in Mexico became interested in Alcoholics Anonymous, what it would do for a human being. And he came back and he offered his services. Now, at that time, they didn't have any non-alcoholic trustees on the General Service Board of Mexico, and he became one of the first ones and chairman. And so Portillo said, Are you still interested? And he says, Well, sure. He says, Well, why didn't you call me about…

He says, You know what I think about Alcoholics Anonymous. He said, It is the only freedom that the people in this country have or anywhere else. He said, Nobody can touch them. Why didn't you tell me? Well, it was at the time, you know, when they devaluated the peso and they had closed the banks and they had troops running around there with guns and everything else. He said, I didn't want to bother you in any time.

He said, Hang up the phone.

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He got his Secretary of State in there and he said, We have diplomatic relations with Holland. Have them two drunks. It will be there. Have them fly to Amsterdam. Let them clear immigration in Amsterdam and come directly to Mexico City. Well, I don't know if any of y'all have been down there lately, but you don't just walk into your terminal like you do here off the airplane in Little Rock. They put you on one of them buses way out there somewhere and they bring you in and you're in a sterile area.

Nobody is between you and immigration and nobody is between you after you lose immigration except folks got guns on. And them two drunks get off of that thing in this sterile area and there are three drunks there with signs on them, World Service Meeting. And they ran up to them and hugged them and said, Come with us. No, we don't go here. We go down here. They went down there and they're doing all the talking in Spanish and they told them, Here they are.

And they said, Where are your papers? Give them to them. Boom, they didn't even look at them. And they took them right through, took them right through customs, and that's how they got into Mexico City. Well, when World Service Meeting is over, them two drunks from South Africa got word, couldn't they get out? You know? And so one of them, you know, one of them, and incidentally one of them, he's blacker than his face, but he was not black.

He was a Muslim. The second oldest living, continuous sober member of Alcoholics Anonymous in South Africa. And in AA we have no color line. And so the same three drunks that brung them in there, took them back through the same process, stayed in the sterile area until they left. Now, that's what heads of state think about Alcoholics Anonymous. Heads of state in the Soviet bloc are beginning to ask a lot of questions about Alcoholics Anonymous.

Particularly when they found out that atheists in Alcoholics Anonymous can stay sober. Agnostics can stay sober. That you don't have to believe anything. You don't have to do anything. You can drink if you want to. You ain't even a member anymore. And it leaves it up to the individual's innermost consciousness of basic human integrity and honesty and the fiber of a human being. And that is perhaps the reason that AA is the only free fellowship that's left in the world today for an alcoholic.

And so the twelve traditions of Alcoholics Anonymous stand as a sacrificial character of our life together and the greatest force of unity that we know. Tradition one. Our common welfare should come first. Personal recovery depends upon AA unity. Probably no society, no fellowship in this world sets a higher value on the personal welfare of the individual member than does Alcoholics Anonymous. But long ago we found that the common welfare had to come first.

For without it there would be very little personal welfare. I'll ask you one question. How can we be free people in AA if our fellowship isn't allowed to stay to leave us free? Free of alcohol and in a way to be free of self. That's a tremendous freedom. Our individual sobriety depends upon the group and the group depends upon us. And that's live and let live. And so unless we curb our individual desires and ambitions we can damage what?

The common welfare of the group. I'm going to give you two practical examples. I've been involved with all of them. One of them is a noisy wet drunk. And today in AA we don't see this as often as we used to and I don't know the reason. And maybe it's good. But you don't see it anymore. There are a lot of groups in Alcoholics Anonymous after they get sober, ain't seen a wet, sloppy, falling out of his chair drunk drug to a meat, you know.

And I tell you, your group hadn't lived till you got one of them in there. And they used to bring them and put them on the front row. And they'd sit there and hold them there to keep them sliding out of the chair, you know. And they'd tell whoever's talking that night, well we got a new wet one and he's going to be on the front row. And you talk to him and they'd instruct you what to tell him, you know.

And you ain't lived till they fall out and they burn up the rugs, you know. And I kind of like that. Burn up the rugs, you know, and I kind of like that, because then you know it's used, it's there, the rug is there for, it's supposed to be there for, you know, and mess up everything, and you're up there talking, I don't know if you've ever been there, and you're in a group, and somebody's up there telling their story about drinking, you know, and how they drank for 45 years, and then burn up the cars, and lost an arm, and shot their wife, and dog, and kid, and then one day they woke up and realized they had a problem with alcohol, you know, and they

[00:30:24]

talk about blackouts, the thing that amazed me about a drunk when he tells his story, he talks about that blackout, how come we can remember it so well to tell her, is the thing that amazes me, and this wet drunk says, wait a minute, you don't know nothing about drinking, let me tell you about drinking, and somebody said, shut up, you know how a wet drinking drunk answers you when you tell him, shut up, make me, somebody said, we said, shut up, he said, I said, make me, and somebody back in the room said, you can't talk to that brother drunk like that, he's an alcoholic, and the other one said, shut up, you don't know the difference, you don't know the difference between a chicken salad and a turkey, and that's exactly what that wet drunk wants, somebody is making a fuss over him, you know, they're arguing with each other, because he just comes from some place where they're arguing with him, and if there's anything a wet drunk will do to you, if you make a well-stepped call, if he finds a crack in your armor, he'll eat you up alive, and then the members got to arguing about, can he stay, can he stay, all this, and sometimes they get into fights and arguments, and sometimes the wet drunk gets very, very belligerent, and sometimes they have to call the police, and sometimes they ask him to leave, but they bring him back when he is in better shape to hear what, to hear the message, because you see, in that meeting, just like right in this meeting right now, there's always someone with a concrete block in their belly so big, they're fighting to drink, they're fighting, living in this world sober, and they're dying for somebody to talk with them, and everybody just rushes by and goes off, you know, and so, every member of Alcoholics Anonymous, the common welfare is for every member who comes there, and so what do we do? We bring that wet drunk back when they're in better shape to hear the message, for we're putting the common welfare first, but it is his welfare too, if he is ever going to get sober, for the group must still go on functioning, whether he or she gets sober, whether they leave, whether they stay ready for him and others to come, and yet that's only one rare aspect of the problem, and when we get sober in AA, we begin to throw off a few small bits of that big ego, and we admit, well, I can't handle alcohol, but I can't stay away from it on my own, fine, but then we find that there's still plenty of this ego.

Sometimes it leads us into taking other members' inventories or gossip about their supposed shortcomings. I guess I'm the only member of AA in this meeting this afternoon that's guilty of that, you know, and it may lure some into hogging the discussion at every discussion meeting, you know, and, you know, I quit going to the old side group, the old so-and-so is getting up there and they're reading the preamble, they're reading the preface, they're saying the serenity prayer, they're introducing the speaker, and they're always making a talk, and they're closing it with the Lord's Prayer, they're even taking up the money, and I'm tired of going to that deal every time they're up there. That's all you see in my prayer. Well, you know how to avoid that simple. If you're asked to do anything in AA and you turn it down, don't gripe at the ones that are doing it. That's how simple that whole deal is.

Somebody's going to have to do it. And then you've got the other one that even your volunteer won't even let you do it. We'll get into that too, you know. And so, as a result, you know, and then when we slip in that spot and we get to start criticizing, somebody's going to criticize, well, this is a selfish program. You know, we've got the greatest answers in the world, you know. This is a selfish program, isn't it? Don't take my inventory. And here's the greatest one. Some are sicker than others. Sure are, aren't we? Yeah. And say, well, why don't we indulge ourselves into this little bit of fun? Well, we all know the good reason why we shouldn't, because indulgence is kind of the immediate personal danger.

Because what? It threatens the individual's own sobriety, but more serious. It threatens the very basis of our sobriety. It's a privilege to be a member of Alcoholics Anonymous and an AA group. I have to ask myself all the time, how come I have been so fortunate? Because when I come to Alcoholics Anonymous, the only other place that I could be a member of was locked up for the rest of my life in a penitentiary or in an insane asylum.

[00:35:17]

And in the free world, to be a member of Alcoholics Anonymous and to come and go, that's the basis of where I found my sobriety and a way to live it, and that is the AA group. Because self-righteous gossip can and will damage a mutual trust that's vital to every group. The compulsor talker can ruin an effective discussion meeting. Now, back in the old days, and we don't really hear it so much anymore, I guess maybe there is, I really don't know, maybe I'm not looking for it. Back in the old days, they didn't have any women, ladies in the AA. And I like to call them ladies.

Women, you know, Anna included. And so, I've known her a long time. And, you know, they didn't have any, the opposite sex. And so, you know, they didn't. And when the first one come to Alcoholics Anonymous, my God, they said it's going to ruin AA. That no woman was an alcoholic, you know, she had problems other than alcohol, you know. And she wasn't a real alcoholic. And so, as a result of it, when the first one to get sober was a gal by the name of Florence Rankin. She got sober before Marty did.

And old Florence, she come into AA about the time when they were writing the book of Alcoholics Anonymous. And they hadn't named it yet, they didn't know what to name it, and they were sitting around writing one chapter and sending it out to Akron for their changes and backers and forwards, and they got down to where it was pretty getting close to put the book out. Florence come in there and they were arguing one night about what they were going to call the book. And they had a drunk that was very active in those days by the name of Fitz Mayo, and he lived in Baltimore originally, and he knew everything in Washington.

So they said, why don't you go down when you're in Washington, go into the Library of Congress. And they thought they were going to call it A Way Out. And so he goes and he sends a telegram back and he says there are 12 already in the Library of Congress with that name, and the drunk says no, that would make 13 and that would be unlucky. Then they thought they were going to call it The Grapevine, and the FBI got wind of it because the FBI puts out a journal called The Grapevine, and the FBI didn't want no part of AA, and AA didn't want no part of the FBI. So you say, well, we got The Grapevine, that's true.

And you know how they allowed it to happen? They were perfectly happy. It's called the Alcoholics Anonymous Grapevine Incorporated, period. And as long as they put them two AAs and what it's spelled for and stood for, the FBI was real happy about the situation. And so anyway, and then they decided they were going to call it The First Hundred Men. Originally the corporation which is now Works Publishing Company and then later became Works Publishing Incorporated, which is now AAWS Incorporated, originally it was a 100 men incorporation and it was going to be a Delaware corporation for the first hundred men who supposedly got sober and alcoholics anonymous.

They were going to call it The Books of One Hundred Men. And Florence had one of them women alcoholic fits. She jumped up and started screaming and hollering, you're not going to call it The One Hundred Men, you're going to call it One Hundred Men and a Woman. And they said, no, that'll make the title too long. She said, I demand a vote for the group conscience. They did, I'd guess 18, 19 there, 17 voted against her and she's the only one who voted for it.

And then one night they still hadn't named the book and AA then is like AA today. We got members who think that AA will cure everything in this world. You know, backaches, headaches, falling out of hair, you name it. So one of them had a friend that had a lot of money. But the problem was he was locked up for the rest of his life in a nut house as a pure nut. Insane. So they got permission to bring him out to this meeting hoping that maybe he would hear something that would unscramble his brain.

And so they brought him in and they were arguing about it and they told him to go sit in the corner over there. And they're arguing about what to call the book and he's over there mumbling and somebody says, shut up. And another said, wait a minute, listen to what he's mumbling. You know what he's mumbling? Anonymous alcoholic, anonymous alcoholic.

[00:40:17]

Now in Cleveland, in the Akron Cleveland area, they had already been using that name. This is before the book came out. But not as Alcoholics Anonymous as Anonymous Group of Alcoholics. Now where this gentleman without a full string of lights had heard about it, no one knew. But that's what he's mumbling. And one of them says, wait a minute, Alcoholics Anonymous. So if you're getting good before you get well in Alcoholics Anonymous, don't get in too spiritual. Stop and realize that where we got our name from, it came from a nut.

You see, ours is a total synthetic recovery program and synthetic fellowship because it came from everywhere. And we just got it down to where we understand it and to where we can communicate it. Nothing has been invented in Alcoholics Anonymous. And not even one day at a time. Because that had been used a long time ago and if one really wants to understand the one day at a time living, and I suggest you can find it as Bill sees it, and it has to do with our emotional being as a human being one day at a time.

And so that's how the book got named. But they still were having problems, you know, back in the day, and they used to call it Red Riding Hood and Wolves. And you have to remember, and there was a gal by the name of Gladys Barm, and Gladys was a heck of a gal, and Gladys got sober right about the same time Marty did, maybe a little earlier. And she later moved to Dallas, was a member of the group that I'm still a member of, and a great gal, and evidently at one time she had been a show gal or something.

And she, and now in Philadelphia, the group got started this way, the first group. There was a member of Alcoholics Anonymous who I guess is responsible for more alcoholics being free to become a member of Alcoholics Anonymous than any member that's ever lived. And he was an atheist. His name was Jimmy Burwell. And Jimmy Burwell would go to them meetings in New York in the 38s and the 39s before the book come out, and they'd get to talking about, they didn't have anything like chapter 5, and they didn't know what to read, they'd just read something, what they thought would be spiritual, you know.

Talking about God, and Jimmy would just literally have a fit, and he said, I don't want to hear it, I'm a sober member of AA, and by God, I just don't like to hear this God business. Now he's the one that was responsible, raising so much cane, that the words, God as we understand him, were put in his steps. And Jimmy is the one that forced Bill to do that. But before that, Jimmy would raise so much cane at the group, it'd disrupt the meetings.

So the group would call everybody but him and tell him where they're going to meet, and he never could find the group. But the problem is, they were running out of places to meet to hide from Jimmy. Well, they went to Bill and they said, we've got to get rid of Jimmy, he's just raised nine kinds of cane. So Bill and Dr. Bob formed an automobile polish company, and they put Jimmy on the road selling it, and they made him sales manager of a one-man sales force.

Of automobile polish that they never was going to manufacture to begin with, but just to get him out on the road. So he gets about 90 miles away from New York City, Philadelphia, and he does what any good sober drunk needs to do, he goes and gets him a wet drunk, and he starts talking to him. And guess what, this drunk took the bait. So there started a group, and you have to remember the group, when two or more alcoholics are gathered together for a sobriety, they may call themselves in a group, provided they are self-supporting, do their own contributions, and have no outside affiliation.

And so they started this little group in Philadelphia, and they used to put a blurb in the newspaper, they said if you have a problem with alcohol and you want to get fixed, they called it fixing drunks in them days, sort of like veterinarians, you know. If you want to do something about it, get fixed. And you want to do something about it, get fixed, this meeting meets here, and it was in a hotel, they put it in the newspaper.

And so, and they used to have, at that meeting, they used to, in those days, they used to have a guard outside the door, they'd lock the door at the closed meeting.

[00:45:07]

And so only real alcoholics could come to the meeting. And in comes old Gladys into that hotel, and she's just drunker than an eight dollar bill. And she has on one of them flapper dresses, she used to be a show gal, and she had a little hat with a feather up the top of one of them, they say a half net across here. And I've met some of the people that knew her. And with them fishnet hoes and them spiked heels and them thongs wrapped around her ankles, and just drunker than a billy goat.

With a big old purse, and she comes a-reeling in there, and she's got this little piece of paper out of the newspaper, and this man says, what do you want? And she said, is this where you fix drunks? He said, you go over there. And she said, what's over there? That's where them others meet. Well, in them days, they didn't call it Al-Anon, you know, and the only reason a lot of the drunks could get to meetings was because the wives were the only ones that were working.

And the only ones that had any money and could drive. And so, they used to meet over there and have a meeting over there, and that's it, you know. And he said, you go over there with them. And she said, no, I got trouble with alcohol, and I want to get sober, and I want to get fixed. And he said, you go over there. And she said, are you a phony or something? Who's beating in there? And he said, alcoholics.

She said, I'm one, and I'm going in there. You said I could come. He said, no, go over there. With that, she reached down and took off one of them spiked heel shoes, and she started beating on that drunk, and darn near beat him to death. And finally, when he got a breath or two, and one eye was still open, he said, well, if you feel that way about it, go in. Of course, he had no choice. He's going to kill him.

Well, that alcoholic happened to be Ebby Thatcher, and Ebby Thatcher was our co-founder of Bill's friend and sponsor. He's the one that carried the message to Bill. And Ebby later became Gladys' sponsor. But they go back in a lot of groups, and, you know, when AA spread out of the New York area and out of Akron and started spreading everywhere, and it got down to our part of the country, well, a lot of the groups were meeting in, you know, in Catholic churches and basements of Episcopal churches.

And, you know, in a lot of the, of course, you know what the church is in our country. That's the Southern Baptist Church. They ain't got no alcoholics in the Southern Baptist Church. And in the small towns, they didn't have any Catholic churches. So naturally, they got them an old abandoned storefront or an upstairs loft somewhere, and it started to be the meeting place. And then they come to clubhouse, and some of the ladies made curtains.

And then later on, they moved to another place, and they put a sandbox out in the back for the kids to play in. And then they'd have suppers on Saturday night and spaghetti suppers and cakes and ice creams. It sort of became a social gathering along with it other than the AA meetings. And that's how it spread in our part of the country. And so they're commonly known as AA clubs, although there's no such thing as an AA club, but the lingo is that's the way it is.

And so back in those days, and naturally, and there was a group, and where I come from, it's one of them silk stocking groups, and God Almighty. And they had what's known as what they call red riding hoods and wolves, you know, hen and shin or whatever you want to call it. And they had a bunch, you know, that were getting good before they get well, you know, and the kind, you know, that they come in, and they quit drinking, and they quit cussing, and they quit smoking.

And then they start jogging, you know. I've never been arrested for fat driving. I don't know about anybody else. And, you know, they get good before they get well. And they got a little upset because they had a few of them over there goo-goo-ing at each other. And so they said, they're running our reputation. We've got to get rid of them. Well, you can't run anybody out of a group, you know. And so they didn't know what to do, so they sat down, and they wrote a letter to Bill.

And they said, he's the head horse. They said, there, Bill, we've got these people in our group, and they're doing this, and they're doing that, and they're running the reputation of our group. How do you get rid of them? Bill wrote back, their group, are they staying sober? Love, Bill. Well, this bunch says, Bill, something's wrong with Bill. He really doesn't understand what we're trying to tell him.

So they wrote a more detailed letter. They didn't know what they were doing, but they wanted to get rid of them. That's what you call an obsession of the mind. In other words, they were a group of people that were trying to regulate who can and who can't come to their meetings or hang around the meeting. And they were obsessed with it. And so they wrote a more detailed letter, and Bill wrote back, their group, are they still staying sober?

They said, well, something's wrong with Bill. So they sat down and wrote a really detailed letter, really just on purpose. They embellished it quite a bit to get them out of there. And they said, an air mail special delivery, certified return receipt requested.

[00:50:02]

And the letter came back and said, their group, are they still staying sober? Don't bother me anymore. Love, Bill. Well, guess what happened? That group was so busy writing letters and waiting for the answer, they forgot to look over there. And when they looked over there, guess what? The situation had taken care of itself. And I am so thankful that was shared with me in my first five or six years of sobriety.

I mean, weeks. Because right there and then I found out there that I had all I could do one day at a time to take care of my relationship with my Creator and quit worrying about what somebody else is doing. I remember that there used to be an old obnoxious, I thought he was obnoxious, big old fat old boy, and he'd aggravate everybody, particularly the young ladies in the group, not in a sex way, but just, you know, just ugly things to them, you know.

And he just hated the opposite sex. And one day I said to one of them fellows that got sober, I believe when Coolidge was president, I said to him, I said, how is he staying sober? He said, that's God's business. I said, what are you talking about? He said, by God, you don't believe me? You go in the kitchen and you look up and you ask God whose business that dick's staying sober. I was bad to be around a bunch of folks that were bad to send me in the corner, but like I was a kid with a dunce cap on, you know, like in school.

And I went in the kitchen and I said, God, whose business is it that dick's staying sober? And something in me said, listen, David, you've got all you can do to let me be God and you be David, and we'll get along real good. I come out there and old S.A. said, whose business is it that he said? I said, God's business. God's business. And those things were shared to me very, very early in sobriety, you know.

And so as a result of it, and then there was a couple of them, a couple of them in the United States, they'd work with this gal for God knows 20-some odd years. Ah, she'd get sober six weeks and she'd go to drinking. And she'd stay sober nine months and go back to drinking. Never made a year of better news. Everybody had quit her, but this month they never gave up on her. And so finally, in desperation, they didn't know what to do, so they called up Bill Wilson and they said, Bill, we'd like to come up and visit with you.

We've got a very important matter to talk over with you. And so they flew up to Bedford Hills and Bill greeted them. He says, all right now. And the man and the lady were both members of the A.A. And said, what is the problem? And they told him the problem about this gal, how everybody's worked with her. And they'd been working with her for 20 years and she's never been able to stay sober. And they said, Bill, what do you think?

And Bill says, well, some do and some don't. And when that couple got back down to South Florida, they realized they paid for two round airplane tickets to hear Bill say, some do and some don't. And so as a result of it, you know, we find in A.A. we're not having any more sex difficulties than any other societies, perhaps less, you know, for the size of our societies. I guess A.A. is if one would look at it realistically and honestly and look back and see that families that have been brought back together, but there is beginning to be communication between them, I guess that it has done more for family relations with separate but cooperating fellowships of Al-Nan and Al-Ateen than any fellowship in the world has ever done.

And when you start multiplying the number of people all over the world who have been affected by the principles of Alcoholics Anonymous, and if one does read Al-Nan's tradition, their fifth tradition is threefold, and the third triad says this, that we practice the twelve steps of Alcoholics Anonymous. See, there's no such thing as twelve steps of Al-Nan. They're the twelve steps of Alcoholics Anonymous.

And you say, well, it can't be. The twelfth step is not worded like the twelfth step of A.A. Well, I've got news for you. In the multilith copy of the book of Alcoholics Anonymous, before the big book, the big red was printed, the first printing, the twelfth step, you read, having had a spiritual experience as a result of these steps, we tried to carry this message to others, especially alcoholics, and to practice these principles in all our affairs.

[00:55:02]

And so when Bill was traveling around the country trying to sell the traditions to the groups, and Lois asked him, how are the families doing? He said, they ain't doing too well. There's no communication. The alcoholic has found a spiritual way to grow, and the family's been relegated over there maybe to bake cakes or something else to come along for the ride, and there's no communication. And he says, Lois, why don't you and Ann, now Ann was not Ann Smith, but a lady out in California, see what you can do about for the families, and that's how the family groups got started, which is now known as Al-Anon.

And she said, well, Bill, if we're going to have communication, will you loan us the twelve steps or give us the twelve steps? And he says, well, we barred from everything and everybody, and so they used basically what was in the multilith copy, and having had, which then the step had been changed to having had a spiritual awakening in the twelve steps, and we tried to carry this message to others, and they eliminated especially the alcoholics, and so that's how that came about.

And Al-Anon's fabulous success as it is today. And so we find, as I said before, that we're not having, you know, but like other societies, we find among us forces that threaten us in ways that alcohol and sex could not, and money. These are the desires for power, for domination, for glory, and as I said, for money. They're all the more dangerous because they are invariably powered by self-righteousness, self-justification, and the destructive power of anger, which usually masquerades as righteous indignation.

So pride, fear, and anger. That's not new in Alcoholics Anonymous. In a few days, we're going to celebrate the birthday of a man who talked this to his flock. He said, pride, fear, and anger. This is what kills people. And so we come to find in AA that pride, fear, and anger, these are the enemies of our common welfare. So for the purposes of AA's traditional principles is to bring these forces to the top and to keep them there.

Only then can AA's common welfare be served, and only then can AA's unity become permanent because the preservation of AA's unity is not only a life-or-death matter for us, but also for the alcoholic who's still unrecovered. We're in here for that guy out there, or that gal. We're here for our sobriety. And if we don't stay sober, and if we don't have a group to where alcoholics out there can come in and get as good a break and benefit as you and I have gotten, then AA, something's going to happen to it that we wish that it didn't.

But you see, in Alcoholics Anonymous, we also have some other things that are deterrent to that. Tradition two, for our group purpose is but one ultimate authority, a loving God as He may express Himself in our group conscience, our leaders are but trusted servants to do no good. Now, when this tradition first came out in the late 40s, and Bill, oh my God, the oldest member in the group darn near had heart attacks.

And they said that the ultimate authority in the group is me. My group ain't got no conscience. I'm the conscience of the group. And they got awful upset about it. And so those early AA members quickly recognized the power driver as a potential wrecker. And he or she is still around, the member who is always sure that he or she is always right, the member who is happily ready to assume all the burdens of leadership and grimly unwilling to share them, let alone give them up, and they don't rotation is for them sick folks.

I'm it. Look what I've done for you. And you're going to fold if you kick me out. But a group does need officers. How can we cope with this dilemma? This dilemma, well, tradition, too, provides the answer. Now, AA is both a democracy, and in the words of our co-founder Bill Wilson, a benign anarchy. A group elects its own officers who have no power to order anybody to do anything. So what's the big deal if you elected the group chairman?

It ain't no big honor to be known as the head sick. That's the reason why every six months… That's the reason why every six months or whatever group does, they rotate it. They want everybody to have a chance of freedom to be the head sick. We don't want to let anybody suffer, you know. In most groups, most of the slate rotates out of office in six months, and then they

[01:00:03]

get new ones. And if a group wants to be a part of the worldwide AA service structure, then it elects a general service representative with a two-year term of service that corresponds to the same length and the servitude of the delegate and also the district and DCMs and the area officers. GSRs elect the area committee members or district committee members, and then they join them in a lot of areas in electing a delegate from their area to the annual general service conference.

I suggest that sometimes you pick up this and read it. There are many, many areas surrounding Arkansas that have adopted many of the things in here. We have in the northeast Texas area. Colorado has quite a bit of it. You have to remember that Alcoholics Anonymous in Arkansas has been here a lot longer than it has been in a lot of other areas, believe it or not, and it's been here a long time. And so, as a result, then the area elects a delegate to the general service conference.

The conference is about the closest approximation, you can't call it a government, that AA has because it produces opinions on important matters of policy. It approves the choices of some trustee nominees, which are Class A trustees, which are non-alcoholic trustees, general service trustees, and then directly elects others, such as your regional trustee, of which you have one that's a member of Alcoholics Anonymous of Arkansas, Wayne, who lives over at Rogers, Arkansas.

And incidentally, I serve at the present time on the general service board and with Wayne, and Wayne is a tremendously dedicated member of Alcoholics Anonymous. He's a member of the AAWS board. He goes in every month. In addition to the quarterly meetings, in addition to the week for the conference, he's something else. And he's one of your products. He comes right out of the service structure. He's been hand-fed and hand-fed, right out of the structure.

And he is tough as nails, but he's fair. And he's doing a tremendous job, and I'm not telling you that because I'm here. Because you see, the reason I know he's doing a tremendous job is because I taught him everything he knows. I had to unscrew everything Anna did. And so we have a lot of fun. In fact, I talked to him the other day, and he's doing a tremendous job. We've been on committees together, and so I happen to be, I'm a trustee at large.

Now, really, if you read the service manual, it's very, very frustrating. You don't know who I am or what I am, but I'm just there, you know. And but neither the conference nor the board can give orders to any AA group or member. And then you say, well, who's in charge around here? Well, AA is a spiritual principle fellowship. And so the autonomous authority is the spiritual concept of the group conscience.

Its voice is heard when a well-informed group gathers together to arrive at a decision. And it results more, not as much on arithmetic or yes or no count. Minority ideas get very thoughtful attention in Alcoholics Anonymous. If I have a suggestion to offer any member of Alcoholics Anonymous as a result of my own experiences, if you feel in your group, if you feel in your district, if you feel in AA as a whole, that you're uncomfortable with any sort of a decision, any sort of a policy, anything in Alcoholics Anonymous, I have a suggestion.

Don't carry it around and let it eat you up like a cancer and start criticizing other people because when we criticize other people, all we're telling somebody we're hurting. Stand up and say, this is the way I feel. And you'd be surprised how many others feel the same way. Because you see, one of the defects of character is we don't want to hurt people's feelings. And yet, who's hurting the most? You see, this is the freedom I'm talking about.

And then who can say, run you off? If they say, shut up, you say, by whose authority? Then they have no defense. They have no defense. That is in an AA group or AA structure. What about that annoying character who's always sure he's right? You better listen. This time they could be right. If they're wrong, then they will remember the first tradition as well as the second,

[01:05:04]

go along with the decision of the group conscience. Does this notion seem cloudy? Well, let's think back to our first AA meeting. The presence us newcomers felt in those rooms was the same as a group conscience. It was real. They welcomed us in. They didn't set up any barriers. They didn't set up any rules. They didn't set up any regulations. Well, you're going to say, well, where does AA get its direction?

Who runs it? And this is a puzzler for every newcomer who comes to alcoholics. You mean you don't have any presidents? You don't have any senators? No, all we just got, just drunks. That's all. And as a result of it, nobody can compel, as I said before, you to pay any dues. No board of directors who can cast one of our erring brothers or sisters out to Siberia somewhere. When the outside world looks at us and members look at us, this can't be so.

There has to be a hidden gimmick somewhere. Then they ask to an experienced AA member if this tradition works. And this member will say, you're darn right that it works. Well, as a result of it, it was all brought about by AA's experience. Now does AA really have real leadership? Sure it does. But not so emphatically yet. Because as a result of it, it comes about as a result of experience. We uncover our true leaders in Alcoholics Anonymous through the committee system in AA.

That's how it comes about. Not through appointments, not through personality, not because somebody's a glib, silver-tongued talker. But it comes as a result of people who have come to live the program. And when they get up, they talk fact. They share experience and not opinion. And the members are willing to walk with them and follow. You see, in AA, the reason that we operate the way we do is real simple.

It's because we don't like to be ordered around to do nothing. You can't tell a drunk nothing. That's the reason why we're experts on nothing. So we don't like to be hollered at. We don't like to be screamed at. We don't like to be told what to and what not to do. And so as a result of it, this is one of the greatest spiritual concepts that we have. And I'm going to spend a few moments on three, and then let's have a break if you want to ask questions.

And then we'll have coffee, and then we'll go on because this is a goodie. And we're going to talk about them pure addicts, quote, quote. We're going to talk about them half and half, quote, quote. We're going to talk about, you know, dual problems, triple problems, quadruple problems. And that long lost soul, the pure alcoholic with no problems. Well, you know, tradition three, the only requirement for AA membership is a desire to stop drinking.

Now, I'm going to be very serious for a few moments. And one thing. Now, we have to remember that in this tradition, it says the only requirement for AA. We have to remember now the name of our fellowship, Alcoholics Anonymous. We also have to remember that members of Alcoholics Anonymous were, are, and will always be, unless it's changed, have been, are, and will always be alcoholics, even though we may have other problems.

And so the other problems naturally come about in our talks, in our own personal experience, you see. And so the only requirement for AA membership is a desire to stop drinking. Now, it's very obvious that if you ain't ever drunk alcohol, then what's the desire to stop drinking? Now, we're not talking about Welch's grape juice when to stop drinking in AA, you know. And so in AA, the best way to do this whole deal is this.

We really don't have to be concerned. The agent that brings us here will force us to stay, or it'll eliminate us, one of the two. You know? And I don't care how a drunk gets to AA. If he's shot out of a cannon, if he's bob-wired and trust and thrown in here, it don't make any difference to me what you want to do after you get here, that's all. And so we haven't or still very concerned about our membership.

In fact, when strong and heavy publicity first came to AA's weight, even today, when there's more publicity about alcoholism than ever before, many groups, and it's only natural,

[01:10:00]

they become scared and they say, won't all kinds of odd people show up? They'll have complications, alcohol mixed with pills and other things. And you know what? Every kind of showed up. They certainly have. In the olden days, and even today, they talk about that mythical character called a pure alcoholic, no complications, you understand, just a guzzler. Well, many come to AA actually thought they were like that themselves, and therefore when the members begin pouring in, then they've got to worry about, won't there be some mighty odd people?

Won't there be criminals? Won't there be social undesirables and degenerates? And that's nothing more than slobbishness and smugness, basically brought around by the innate fear of human beings. You know, we simply did not know, do not know who's going to show up, and you know what? Since AA's inception, every kind of a human being that's an alcoholic have found their way into AA. You say, well, isn't every organization entitled to a rule for membership?

Well, that's why today they decided to forego this privilege, to be all-inclusive and not exclusive, and that's easy. Early members tried it the other way, it didn't work. And so as our fellowship was nearing its 10-year mark, the office which at that time served as the general service, or as the world headquarters in those days, asked all the groups that were in correspondence to list their rules for membership and send them in, and they did.

And if all the rules that were sent in were been enforcing AA everywhere, it would have been impossible for any alcoholic to be a member of AA. Our two co-founders couldn't be a member, because they came to AA with the quote, so-called quote, dual problem, you know. If you read Bill's story, you know, alcohol and sedatives, and Dr. Bob, alcohol and barbiturates. Now sedatives, today they got different names, and them days they used to roll them in like cigarette paper in potions and powders, and you'd take them, gulp it down with gin, that's what Bill liked to drink, Dr. Bob was a doctor, he was high class.

You know, isn't it amazing the type of people that the two co-founders of AA, here was a drunken, busted stockbroker, and the other one was a drunken doctor, and he was a rear-end doctor at that. Now isn't that something? Now how about that for a bunch of drunks that are co-founders of AA? He was a, the fancy name for it is a proctologist. Yeah, yeah. Little did he realize that he'd worked on a lot of alcoholics and he almost found the answer because he really, he was working in an area where the Alkies really brains are, you know.

You know, believe it or not, sure, in AA, yeah, you betcha, we're wired backwards, our kind. Our brains is in our rear-end and our rear-end's in our head. That's the precise reason we can't sit in a meeting more than an hour, we wear our brains out, you know. And don't kid yourself you can't have fun talking about traditions, not really, it takes a little looking into, and you know, like you kind of got to embellish it sometimes, but not too far off because there's always somebody that's reading them things, you know, and they'll point it out to you, so.

But you know, and as a result of it, you know, and nobody could be a member of AA, so all the rules were thrown out, just one sentence, tradition three. Well then somebody's going to ask, well this tradition is a rule that the owner is required for membership is a desirous type of drinker. I want to ask you a question. Who determines in AA whether or not a newcomer qualifies, how alcoholic they are?

I don't know about you, I've been in lots of AA groups all over this world, and I ain't never seen an instrument they can stick in and up and down and through an alcoholic to tell you how alcoholic you are. This deal ain't like pregnancy, you know, no, when you got her, you got her, this ain't a nine month deal, you can't abort it. That's what gives them churches such a hard time, about alcoholics, you know, they got us, you know, we're here, thank God we've got a solution.

Thank God we've got a solution, and as a result of it, so nobody, nobody, in other words, qualifiers whether anybody wants to stop drinking, I can't, I don't know about you, I can't look at an alcoholic and say, you're going to stay sober the rest of your life, I don't even know if I'm going to stay sober the rest of my life, I hope I do one day, nobody,

[01:15:13]

that is the individual's own business, because you see in Alcoholics Anonymous we have no definition of alcoholism, we've got descriptions of an alcoholic, we've got descriptions of an alcoholic, and basically we've got three descriptions of an alcoholic, one in chapter three in the book of Alcoholics Anonymous, first one, More About Alcoholism, there are many women who have lost the ability to control their drinking, the second one is in chapter four, We Agnostics, that if you decide you're unable to stop drinking, if when you honestly want to, you cannot stop drinking, or if you have little control over the amount that you take, then A is very general, it says that you're probably an alcoholic, I read that and I said I'm probably an alcoholic, that if when you honestly want to, you finally cannot quit drinking, or when drinking you have little control over the amount that you take, and then the third description is what, the first step, Twofold Mind and Body, any idiot knows that an alcoholic ain't spiritually correct in between drunks and drinking, unless they've got a spiritual program to live by, that was our problem before we got to AA, our problem wasn't drinking and staying drunk, our problem was inability to keep from drinking, the inability to keep from staying drunk, that's the reason we need the recovery program right now, you don't need it when you're drinking, now is when we need it, and if we preserve it through the traditions to allow it for the now to live now, this is the reason we're all here right now, because we do not know when the obsession to drink will return, but we know that it will, and if we're not on solid spiritual grounds at that time, then it may be too late.

They just nourish it down one day at a time, this applies to groups, it applies to anything or anybody, and so as a result of it, many, many, in fact, you don't even have to say it aloud that I'm an alcoholic, nobody can force you to do it, you know, you know, AA, you don't come to AA like you join the church, or like you go to the Rotary or anything else, you know, or join the Toastmasters or the Country Club, I've never seen an alcoholic wake up and say, well, now I belong to the Rotary, I belong to the Lions Club, I belong to the Church, I belong to the Country Club, I'm a big wheel on the community fund, I need something new to join, today, I think, let me look in the book, I don't belong to this, I think I'll go down and join Alcoholics Anonymous, we don't quite get here that way, we certainly don't, and you say, well, you don't even have to say it aloud, and that's very unfortunate for us who arrived today with only a half-hearted desire to stay sober, you know why we're alive in AA today?

Because somebody cared to keep the doors open for us, you know why we're sober today? Because we ain't drinking, now if it gets more complicated than that, I'm going to have to go get me another deal, and the reason I ain't drinking today is because I found a way to live with the pain of reality and live with the joys of reality, and not feel so bad and get drunk, and angry, and crazy, and not have to drink to celebrate how great I am, now if it gets more complicated than that, I'm going to have to get me another deal, I don't know about anybody else, and so as a result of it, you know, in AA, now, you know, who are we going to keep anybody out?

Too many are desperate drunk, and when I say alcoholic, as I said before, even though we may have other problems, you know, now I know there's a lot of them get up and say, you know, I'm an alcoholic and an addict, I'm an alcoholic and a glue sniffer, I'm an alcoholic and a needle freak, you know, and all this and that, and that's okay, but after they stay in AA for a while, it's utterly amazing, four or five years down the line, hi, I'm an alcoholic, all the way down the line, sooner or later, way down the line, you know, way down the line, and you don't have to pressure them about it, you know, and leave them alone, you know, leave them alone, and, you know, one of the greatest things that's happened to Alcoholics Anonymous, didn't happen, it happened yet, it really did, AA is really responsible for it, and that is, let's be realistic, you see, when treatment modalities came into existence, and the bottom line is money, and so as a result of it, they call it chemical abuse, or chemical recovery, and in it, not only alcoholics,

[01:20:13]

but straight addicts, coke addicts, you know, right down the line, and so they intermingle with the drunks, and then they'd go to open AA meetings, and then, or vice versa, bring in, and so, when it was time for the, those who didn't have an alcohol problem, they had no place to go, and the only thing they knew was AA, they would come on and go, and then they'd get into closed meetings, and they'd get to talking about shooting, and snorting, and all this, and somebody would raise nine kinds of cane, you know, did you ever drink? Well, if I would have drunk, I'd have been an alcoholic, and they said, no, that's not it, that's not it, so they came, and then, what happened?

They're kind of like, and so it was really, it was, it got to be kind of, kind of tough for some of them, and so finally, they wanted to take our entire recovery program and use it, Narcotics Anonymous, and we said no, for reprint. So finally, through trial and error, and it's there in your central office, is their own recovery book called Narcotics Anonymous, and baby, it is a good one. It is real good, because, now, that's for the straight addict, and I got kind of tickled, I go, I've been to about 12 or 13 NA meetings, and I've been to their first really convention in Philadelphia, and I got kind of tickled.

I'm sitting there, and I'm listening, and the sponsor of one of them says, now, when you get up there, don't you talk about your drinking, you talk about your pilling and your shooting. I tell you, I said, well, if he drank, let him talk about it a little bit. No, no, no, no. And you know, but you see, they have a very serious, and the reason for it, you say, well, why? Well, I'll tell you, it's real simple. It's very simple, if you look at it realistically.

You see, it is not illegal to go, if you're of legal age, to go in a whiskey store and buy whiskey, but it is illegal, or buy it on the street, as far as that goes, but it's illegal to buy street drugs, and it's illegal, it's illegal to use Ford's prescriptions, and it's illegal to do those things, you know, even to make it. Why, heck, when I was a kid, look, I could make the finest cocaine you ever had in your life. All I needed was ether and acetone, and you could just shoot, and you went real great, and I got kind of tickled.

A bunch of them were sitting around one night, and they looked at me, and they called me, hey, old man, and I said, yeah, what is it? And they said, what do you know about all this stuff? I said, I'm going to tell you something. When I was ten and a half years of age, and I was living on that first kid row, and drinking that wine, I said, we used to take a bottle with a little whiskey leavings in it, and get some of that 37-cent, half-a-gallon muscatel, and shoot that in there, and about 30 aspirins, and then we'd take them cotton deals out of them benzidrine inhalers, and squeeze them out with alcohol, and everything else, and we'd smoke them. In them days, we called it grass. We didn't call it marijuana. And I said, we'd drink that stuff, and smoke that grass, and I said, I could take a trip you couldn't even buy a ticket for, you know.

And they looked at me, who are you? And I said, there's nothing new in Alcoholics Anonymous. And I'll tell you one of the greatest experiences that tells the whole story about our membership. Back in the old days in AA, the 23rd Street Clubhouse on 24th Street, now that's typical of an AA name. You know? You know, just like where we're meeting here now. This is typical. This used to be a mortuary deal, you know.

And it's great. Here's where we revive dead bodies. And so anyway, back in those days, and so the police brung this character in there, and they threw him in there and said, take care of him. Well, number one, he was okay. He had on a dress, and he had earrings in his ears, and he had makeup, lipstick, and rouge, and he had on a lady's hat with a net. He had an old boa wrapped around it, and he had on silk stockings and tennis shoes, and he was carrying a purse, and his hair was dyed blonde, and he was black.

And Barry, who was on the desk, and he got to talking to Barry, and Barry says, the police said, he don't belong here. He believes with you people. Barry says, well, do you want to stop drinking? And he said, more than anything in the world. He said, but I want to tell you that I'm different, and I'm black, and I shoot heroin, and I smoke marijuana, and drink that gin.

[01:25:18]

Barry said, do you want to stop drinking? Meanwhile, there's some rednecks sitting over there playing dominoes, and they looked over there at them burly folks and said, get that character out of there. Get him out. Or whatever it was, get it out. And so they went up and picked him up and threw him out the door. Well, the police just brung him, and he had no place to go, and Barry, so Barry picked up the phone and called Bill. Bill, come down here, we have got a problem.

So Bill comes down there, and he opens the door, and he's still looking out there on the stoop, and he almost falls over backwards, and he turns around, Barry, what's that? He said, that's the problem. He said, well, what is the problem? And he told him how the police brung him.