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, sorry. But it's illegal to buy street drugs, and it's illegal, it's illegal to use forged, forged prescriptions, and it's illegal to do those things, you know, even to make it. Why, heck, uh, when I was a kid, it, it… Look, it, I could make the finest cocaine you ever had in your life. All I needed was ether and acetone, and you, you could just shoot… Man, you'd be real great. And I, I got kind of tickled. Uh, a bunch of them were sitting around one night. They looked at me, and they called me, "Hey, old man." And I said, "Yeah, what is it?" They said, "What do you know about all this stuff?" I said, "I'm gonna tell you something. When I was 10 and a half years of age, and I living on that first skid row and drinking that wine," I said, "we used to take a, a bottle and with, 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 aspirin. And then we'd take them cotton in- deals out of them Benzedrine inhalers and squeeze them out with alcohol and everything else, and we, and, and, and we smoked 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 we…" I said, "I could take a trip you couldn't even buy a ticket for," you know. And they looked at me, "Who, you?" And I said, "There's nothing new in Alcoholics Anonymous." And I'll tell you, tell you one of the greatest experiences that tells the whole story about our membership. Back in the old days in AA, at the f- the 23rd Street clubhouse on 24th Street. Now, that's typical of an AA name. You know? You know, it's just like where we're meeting here now. This is typical. This used to be a mortuary deal, you know. And, and, and it's great. Here's where we revive dead bodies. And so anyway, back in those days at the twen… 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. 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, uh, the police says, "He don't belong here. He believes we're you people." Barry says, "Well, do you wanna stop drinking?" And, and he says, "More than anything in the world." He said, "But I wanna tell you that I'm different." "And I'm Black, and I shoot heroin, and I smoke marijuana, and drink that gin." Barry said, "Do you want to stop drinking?" Meanwhile, there's some rednecks sitting over there playing dominoes, and they looked over there, and then Bernie folks said, "Get that character out of… God, get him out." Or whatever it was. "Get it out." And so they went up, 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 at… Out there on the stoop, and he almost falls over backwards. He turned around, "Barry, what's that?" He said, "That's the problem." He said, "Well, what is the problem?" And, and he told him how the police brung him, and then Bill said, "Well, uh, did you talk to him?" He said, "Yes." "Did he say he wanted to stop drinking?" He said, "Yes." "Are you satisfied that he may mean business?" He says, "Yes." He says, "That's all we have to know." So he went outside, and he said, "Come with me." He picked him up, and he took him over to that table where they're playing dominoes and sat him down. He said, "Boys, I want you to meet the newest member of Alcoholics Anonymous. He needs you, and you need him." And that tells the whole story right there. Now, if all in AA comes of age, it's all that, but our members won't read that. You see, there isn't anything in our traditions or any experience that hadn't happened before we all got here. That's the reason the traditions were written, you know? But we need to communicate about them. Well, okay. Let's… Why don't we take a little break and get some coffee, and then if you want to ask some questions, and then we'll, we can go through the others pretty swift. Thank you very much. Yeah. Well, welcome back, and we'll go on. And, uh, I'm still David, an alcoholic. Hi, David. And I haven't had a drink today since I've started. So, so, uh, basically, this is what I'm here for. I'm David Sobriety. Uh, so Tradition four, each group should be autonomous except in, uh, matters affecting other groups or as a whole. You know, and a member of Alcoholics Anonymous who goes to a lot of meetings, our meetings, or travels away from, uh, let's say, the locality or the local area or maybe the city or town in which they have gotten sober, uh, sometimes, and particularly in different parts of the country, uh, they have a tough time, uh, getting acclimated or feeling comfortable in the group. And, you know, uh, early in my AA life, uh, I'm glad I went out of town to an AA meeting to find out that the, uh, AA didn't start in that group and that the oldest member wasn't Bill Wilson in the group that I got sober, that AA was everywhere. And now a member who does any amount of traveling finds the AA spirit much the same everywhere. But apart from that inward kinship, uh, there is vast differences among groups. Now, sometimes, uh, if you visit a group, you may find three members discussing the, the steps in someone's living room or the backseat of a car. And someone else, you may find as many as two, three hundred listening to a talker in a church auditorium or at a facility such as this. In one part of the country, respectful silence greets the AA talker begins, "Hi, everybody. My name is David A, and I'm an alcoholic." In another part of the country, everybody happily shouts back, "Hi, David." And in many places, they may introduce themselves by their full name. Uh, they may just say, "I'm an alcoholic." They just give their first name, no initial. There are one-hour meetings, hour-and-a-half meetings, two-hour meetings, three-hour meetings, four-hour meetings, candlelight meetings, midnight meetings, six o'clock in the morning meetings, 12 o'clock in the morning meetings, women's meetings, men's meetings, uh, barefoot meetings, and God almighty, and incense burning meetings, and candlelight meetings. And, you know, and, uh, in each neighborhood, in every town or city, in every part of the world reached by AA, the local group is free to work out its own customs. If it hadn't been, AA never would've s-spread where it did. If, uh… Many years ago, um, uh, the groups all over the United States, and, uh, they told Bill, and they said, "Now, look, we will pay for our services, but we don't want to be governed. And if we want to have an hour-and-a-half meeting, that's our business. And if we want to have a six-hour meeting, that's our business." And so Bill said, "Just as long as y'all stand sober, don't care if you meet all day. Doesn't make a bit of difference." There's no set format. And in part of the country, God, you can always tell when the hour's up. Phone starts ringing. You know? And, uh, you go out to, uh, Southern California, which is, uh, uh, uh, since the middle '50s, has had the largest contingent in numbers, sober members of Alcoholics Anonymous, and you'll find that the meetings out there basically are all the same. They're hour-and-a-half meetings. Everyone who participate in the meeting, whether it be a closed meeting or whether it be an open meeting, are all members of Alcoholics Anonymous. Uh, they, uh, and it's all the same. They read the, the preamble, then they read a portion of chapter five, and then they'll have two or th- about three, 10-minute talkers, and then they have a break, and then they have a 45-minute talker at an hour and a half. And up in the East, it's a different matter altogether. They, they still have hour-and-a-half meetings. I remember when I was a delegate, and we had a Wednesday night free, and we went to one of the groups up there. And, oh, there's a bunch of us from, um, oh, um, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Missouri, and Mississippi, and Louisiana, and Texas. We call ourselves the Bible Belt AA, you know, Alabamans. And for some reason or other, just kind of a nickname we hang on each other. And we all went to this open meeting, and, um, uh, this big meeting. And this monkey got up, and he gave his name, and we all screamed out, "Hi, Tony." And good God almighty, you thought that, uh, that we had ruined the republic up there. 'Cause those people don't do that. And, you know, those people in the East, you know, they're not cold. It's just defect of character, that's all. And so as a result, you know, and they don't have… We, we find out a lot about those kind of things, you know. And AA never would've been able to spread all through the Deep South if it hadn't been autonomous and allowed certain things to grow. And so as a result of it, and now as always, though, however, freedom brings responsibility. Now because each group is autonomous, it is up to each group to avoid any and all action, uh, that might harm AA. Now, there have been such actions, or this tradition would not be necessary. Because, uh, uh, now blowing up the, uh, the big size, the big ego may inspire one group to take over all the public information work for its area without consulting any of the other local groups. And this was prevalent in AA in the earlier days because the, the, the first group, or the older groups, had, uh, the, the experienced sobriety. And as a result of it, it, they felt that, that, uh, their experience entitled them or gave them the freedom to be of service to the community. You see, one of the biggest problems that we have, it's not really a problem, it's a challenge in AA today, is we have a lot of people that are capable of going out and telling their story, but they're not capable of telling what AA is not. And that's where the big challenge is. To the unknown public, you know. Because when most of them are asked to go talk, let's say, at a Sunday school, uh, class or else at a service club luncheon or even in, uh, a big school meeting or… Most members of AA, all they know is their story. And so not utilizing AA's experience of what to say and when you're talking before a non-AA meeting, all this is available. And as a result, because I'll tell you the reason. You know, you go, you, you, you, you take a drunk that tells his story over at the local Rotary Club, and he talks about, you know, how he was drunk, and he fell out of a boxcar, and a train run over and cut his arm off. You know? And, uh, and right away, and everybody feels sorry for him. The next thing you know, that's, that, the, the civilians are taking up a collection to buy him a false arm. But he tells that same story at an AA meeting, and everybody screams and laughs and claps, you know? There's a one-armed drunk in our group. Well, they did. And then, and a little gal came in, hasn't been sober 20 years, and gal come in. She saw that one arm there is gone, and she says, "Oh, that must've been painful when you lost that arm." He looked at her, said, "Honey," he said, "tell you the truth." She said, "How'd you lose your arm?" He said, "Well," he said, he said, "coming off my last drunk, I shook so hard it just fell off," you know? Now we understand that, but you tell that out there in the non-world out there, and it's totally oblivious to them. But when we can talk about how an alcoholic can recover in AA is another matter altogether. And so as a result of it, a lot of groups in those days decide they want to take, take over everybody's business in the group, and the lid blew off. And as a result of it, you know, uh, uh, uh, it, it's only natural that we live in what we call the Madison Avenue era of advertising and everything else. And a lot of members of AA that are coming to AA today feel that AA's 11th tradition is old-fashioned, that it was written back in them days. I got news for you. That's the reason we're here. Because, uh, those fool egos that ran wild back in those days are responsible for those traditions, and it darn near blew AA out of the tub. It certainly did with those early horrible anonymity breaks. And considering the amount of members that we've got at, in Alcoholics Anonymous today, there's a certain amount of discipline in AA that it's here, and no humans have to exercise it because out of the multitude, millions of members that we've got well, how many hundreds and hundreds of thousands we have in AA, and only a handful are out there violating their anonymity. That speaks very well for AA's silent discipline. And so as our individual group develop, progress, we obey the AA traditions because we think they are right for us. We obey these principles because we think they're good principles, even though sometimes we will resist. And, you know, a lot of times when we violate a tradition, really it's ego saying, "Well, look how many people I'm, are gonna get well because I'm gonna tell them I'm a member of AA," on whether it be in the newspaper or anything else. But what if you get drunk again? How many are you going to kill? Tell me if anybody in this room has not… We're absolutely sure they're sober right this second, can guarantee me or anybody else that 40 years from now, they're still going to be sober. Well, this is what we're guaranteeing the people out yonder. This is exactly what we're doing when we do that. We don't know. We don't know. But at least we're telling them the truth when we say, "I'm sober today, and I have been," et cetera, and et cetera, so long. You know? And it's human ego not to get out here and somebody say, "Well, how long have you been sober?" "Well, I've been around the program 18 years." And then some wise monkey said, "Well, when did you have your last drink?" "Oh, four days ago." Now, you get on television, start talking like that, how, what is the credibility to a drunk out there? Now, most drunks don't watch them kind of programs. A drunk that's drinking at home, he ain't watching As the World Turns. You know, he ain't reading the Watchtower. If he's watching television, it's when he comes to, and they got them test patterns on. You know, just like I didn't file to pay income tax for 18 years, and I'd ride around with my wife and be in the car, and I'm sober, and that, that fella would come on for H.R. Block, talk about your income tax. I'd switch to another channel. She'd punch it back. Yeah. And same way with a drunk drinking. You know? He, you know, you know, he, he didn't want anybody ever telling his story. And so the, now comes the final level of obedience. We obey these because we really want to for ourselves. It's not a question whether they're right or wrong. We conform because we genuinely want to conform. And such is our process of growth and unity and in function, and such is the evidence of God's grace and love among us. And you say, "Well, how now?" Many people wonder how AA can function under such seeming anarchy. Other societies have to have law, and force, and sanctions, and the punishment administered by authorized people. Happily for us, we found that we need no human authority, whatever. In AA, we got two authorities which are far more effective. One heals and one kills. There's God or Father who just simply says, "Here's my will. Use it." And here's alcohol, and it says, "If you don't use God's will, I'll kill you." That's it. One heals and one kills. And so we don't… And, and sometimes it does kill. And so when all the chips are down, we conform to God's will or we perish. And at this level, the death sentence hangs on over the AA member, the AA group, AA as a whole. So there's authority enough, love enough, and punishment enough, all without any human being grabbing the handles of power. And such is AA's backdrop and backstop against dissolution and its final guarantee of survival under any and all conditions. Because I'll tell you why. For us, it's to do or to die. In this deal, as, as, as a recovering alcoholic, we either live the steps and face the consequences or don't live the steps and face the consequences. As an AA group, we either live the traditions and face the consequences, or we don't live them and face the consequences. Doesn't make any difference. Either way around, we're gonna have to face the consequences. Here comes a goodie, tradition five. Each group has but one primary purpose, carry this message to alcoholics who are still suffering. You know, every newcomer learns the hard way, and some of us, uh, um, uh, I mean, every newcomer, and some of us especially learn the hard way, rather, that this business of staying sober has to have top priority. If we fail at that, we'll never succeed at anything else. And so the fifth tradition just simply reminds each group that unless a group makes its primary purpose that of every alcoholic who comes to AA the freedom to stay sober, then we are flirting with people's lives. Very, uh, uh, often unthinking enthusiasm puts a group off of the main track. One group, for example, offered expanded AA programs that include helping newcomers to find jobs. I've been in a lot of AA groups, and look on the bulletin board, and you can't find when they're meeting because they got signs up there, firewood for sale, babysitting, wanting cars washed, garage sale, bake sale, raffles, and this and that and that. And, and, and somebody's gonna show a film on alcoholism and et cetera and et cetera. And you say, "Well, when do you meet?" "Oh. Oh, that was… Well, wait a minute. I have to ask somebody." You know? Now, tradition five doesn't frown on the individual AA who tells another about the job, but a good job, but when the group turns itself into an employment agency, the newcomer may get confused about his primary purpose. Now, AA's function is to help an alcoholic get sober, and then that alcoholic can get himself on the payroll, or he can get a job, or he can quit it, whatever he wants to. That's really not AA's responsibility. It is not AA's responsibility, nor is it AA's concern if you want to work. "Oh, we want to do it." "What do you want to do about living sober?" And then one can go on from there. Now, using discretion, a member may lend a few dollars needed for a meal or a room or even having a broke alcoholic to be a temporary guest in your home. You've never lived till you've had one of them temporary guests in your, in your home, and they stay for a year, you know? God, I remember I had one of them in there. Man, and, and, you know, and, and good God almighty, and, and, and one night, there, there's a knock at the door, and I open it up, and, you know, police and police. I don't care if, I don't care if they got long hair and wearing boots and jeans or they got a, a, a, you know, a, a, a burr cut and, and smoking a pipe and wearing white socks and hush puppies. They all, they're all the same. They got emotion. Out comes their hand, and out comes their, their picture and their badge, and they're all just, whoop. I believe they're born that way, you know? And it was two up one night, and they said, "Are you so-and-so?" I said, "Yeah." And one of them said, "We got a paper here to search your house." I said, "What for?" "We understand you're harboring a thief." I said, "Well, there was somebody here, but he's gone," and I told them I'd met him down at the twenty-four-hour club and that he didn't have a place to stay and all this and all that. And, "Yeah, well, we got to search," and I said, "Well, he did leave two boxes," and so they went in there, and they opened up the boxes, and my God, there were transistor radios in there and rings and watches, you know. And one looked at me, and he said, "Are you a fence?" I said, "What's that?" He said, "A, somebody that's getting their stuff and reselling it, stolen merchandise." And I said… He said, "Well, you're gonna have to come down with me." "Uh." And so I get in the squad car with him, and I go down there, and I'm laughing all the way, and I'll tell you why. And we get down there, and these two detectives take this box, and they, they, they get somebody to sign, take to the property room, and then they take me over to the night desk sergeant, and they tell him this and that, and then they leave. The desk sergeant looks up at me, and he says, "Sponsor, when are you gonna learn?" And, you know, and, and, you know, and I told him what the deal was, you know. And, um, you know, but a group as a whole is not a friendly finance company or a welfare agency or a divorce-getting agency or a marriage agency or a jail-getting in or jail-getting out agency, you know, or a housing bureau. Even acting on our own as individual members of AA, an AA layman certainly shouldn't award himself an honorary or herself an honorary medical degree and hand out diagnoses and prescriptions and amateur analysis of other people's neurosis and sickness. Now, because this exact personal failing is so common in AA, the AA group should instill in every one of its members, and particularly the AA group in all of its dealings should be extra careful to emphasize that the group is not invading the medical field, the psychiatric field, the social worker field. Through the personal experiences of our members, we are only qualified to carry one message, how an alcoholic can recover in AA. And I'm gonna share with you a personal experience. It's not the first time in AA that it's happened. It happens all the time. It's happening right now in an AA meeting somewhere in this world. There's a beautiful gal, and she was twenty-three, twenty-four years of age when this happened. But from the time that she was ten and a half, 11 years of age, she became a street urchin, and she developed into a mature, physical, and beautiful gal. But she started on alcohol and street drugs, and she'd ended up in jail and for abusing and selling and you name it. And by the time she was 18 years of age, she'd been in so much trouble, her family totally disowned her. And she was living here and there in one of them live-ins, live-out deals, staying strung out and drunk all the time. And one night, she had one of them sports cars that'll do 120 standing still with one of them fiberglass bodies. And, and she was strung out, and she was out in the country, just, just way out and up in a tree and somewhere. And, and she was driving about 120 miles an hour, and she missed the curb and hit a huge oak tree head on. And naturally, the front of the car collapsed, threw her through the windshield. When she came through, the top of her skull hit the … trunk of the tree and just crushed it. Through some miracle, she did not die, and she spent many, many weeks and many, many months in intensive care and later on, but with a lot of traumatic injuries to the brain and through some very skillful surgery and through God's grace, she didn't die physically. But all for practical purposes, many, many thought she, she was a, just a vegetable. And, and when she did, she, she had, uh, her recall mechanism was practically gone, and she had halting speech, and she couldn't think, and her memory, it, it was, it was a mess. And well, uh, their, their family said they disowned her. They did not do, so they had to get a court committed, and they put her in the insane asylum and committed her to be there for the totally insane for the rest of her life. And when she was admitted to the insane asylum… And a lot of times we ridicule civilians, we ridicule psychiatrists, we ridicule physicians, and we blame them for our dilemma. "They got me hooked. They did this to me." It's an utterly amazing thing. I ain't never heard one say, "I didn't enjoy it. That's the reason why I went back to get hooked." Okay. So there was a Cuban refugee who was a psychiatrist. Somewhere along the line, he had had a lot of experience working with alcoholics someplace, somewhere. And after reading her case history, he suspicioned that she was an alcoholic, and that if she was, there was a place where she could get well or better, and that was over at the alcoholic recovery unit in the state hospital, right there on the ground. And so as she began to progress, his suspicion now confirmed into belief, and he knew that if she was ever going to get any better, that his medical science and art could not give it to her. Psychiatry couldn't give it to her, or shock treatments and that kind of therapy couldn't do it to her. But there was one place that had the medicine for her malady, and that was them AAs, and the medicine was love. Caring, and sharing, and loving. That's where the power of our society lies, folks. One drunk talking to another. We care about each other and share about each other because we're a common bond of experience. Because you can't give away something you don't possess. And so when she got a little bit better, they moved her over to alcohol recovery unit, and God, she just started blooming just like a rose. Just bloo… And the, and when the gals from the outside groups would come in and bring the program, and they'd talk with her, and they brought her pantyhose, and they brought her makeup, and they brought her a hair dryer, and they taught her how to put makeup on again. She couldn't even recall how to do that. And fixed her hair, and God, and, and everything, and clothes, and, and, and she kept saying, "If I ever get out of here, can I be a member of AA?" And they said, "Well, if you want to." And finally, she was allowed to go out one weekend, and they took her to AA meetings everywhere. And God, she enjoyed herself so much. And finally, the day came that, you know, that they said she was well enough if she wanted to go out in the outside world, as long as she had a sponsor and as long as she had a place to live. Well, they brought her into one of the gal's house for about three weeks, and then, uh, they found a little job for her to do there in the apartment to make a few dollars. And then they found a little garage apartment for her, and she started going to the AA groups. And God, she just… Everybody loved her, and she loved AA, and this was her family, and she was just growing and blooming. And then the night came when she sat in one of them closed AA discussion meetings to where everybody in there is an expert. And the topic for our discussion that night was, "Are you really sober if you're also taking medication?" Well, it got around to her, and because of her traumatic brain surgery, for the rest of her life, she was on Dilantin and a mild dose of phenobarbital, which is the standard medical prescription and treatment for seizures of that nature and convulsions. And it got around to her, and she got to talking about how she's on Dilantin and phenobarbital. And right there and then, three members sitting in that group jumped her up and says, "You're not sober. You're taking dope. And you've gotta have… Throw it away, and you've gotta have a new sobriety date." And not knowing any better and thinking that she'd be kicked out of AA, and she had no family, and she, she went into the secretary's office and asked for her sobriety card, scratched out her original sobriety date, put down a new one, went home and threw all of her prescribed medication, which she was not abusing, down the toilet and flushed them down. And three and a half weeks later, she had a seizure and a convulsion, the kind that Gatorade and honey won't stop, salt water sipping won't stop, and she died. Her sponsor called me and she says, "I called her parents, and they said, 'What are we gonna do?' And they said, 'We have no daughter.'" She called me, and I was her male sponsor, and I said, "We'll have a funeral. I don't know about up here, but we have a group of us that we have a few lots scattered around for our less fortunate brothers and sisters." Even some of them went back to her. Then she said, "Who are we gonna have pallbearers?" I said, "I know three." And I called up them three members of AA and asked them if they'd be pallbearer. And coming back from the services, they rode with me, and the one that had been sober five years, he said to me, "Where do we go wrong?" And I said, "The AA group and the AA members in all of our dealings should be extra careful to emphasize that we are not invading the medical field. Only through the personal experiences of our members are we qualified to carry one message, how an alcoholic can recover in AA." And I said, "Gentlemen, we've got a lot of doctors in AA, but we haven't got one physician. We'll let the physician do the healing. We ain't gonna kill folks." Now, that's a common practice in AA, believe it or not. That's not isolated. It happens all the time. That's what I meant a while ago, that, you know, we're great about talking about saving lives. We don't ever talk about the ones we kill. You know? We certainly didn't. Now, if we share our own personal experiences, that's one of the reasons why if I have the privilege to call on a wet drunk on a 12-step call, and I still go on them, I don't tell them to drink. I don't tell them to not drink. I don't tell them to go to AA. I don't tell them not to go. I just tell them my story, period. That's all I'm qualified to tell them. Nothing else. That's the only experience that I can share with them. Because you see, a wet drinking drunk, when you tell him, you say, "Look, look, can't you see what's happening to you?" If he could see what's happening to him, he'd see. "Can't you hear what they're saying about you?" If he could hear it here. "It's that stuff you're drinking, it's killing you. Let me have it," and you grab it and take it away from him. And that drinking drunk will give you the most logical answer you'll ever hear in your life. And he says, "No, it's not killing me, but take it away from me, it'll kill me. I have to have it to live. I have to have it to sleep. I have to have it to eat. I have to…" You may not have ever heard that in AA or have you? Well, you better listen to it sometime, I'll tell you. We're talking about old-timey AA, and we're talking about the kind of stuff that's been responsible for lives living sober, whether we like it or not, whether we like it. I didn't like to hear those things when I come to Alcoholics Anonymous. But I've seen some very, very sad things happen in AA, along with the joyous things in AA. And, you know, and, and it's so easy. It's just like you walk into a drinking bar right now with a bunch of drunks in there, and you walk up to them, and you say, "How are you doing?" "Fine. Fine." We don't like to talk about those challenges, and we don't like to talk about until they override us. And so, you know, as a result of it, uh, educate, and so when, uh, you know, the temptation in AA as far as education, the public, and everything else is strong at the time this tradition was written because public ignorance about alcoholism as an illness was more widespread than it is now. And since then, other agencies have sprung up to assume the job of educating the general public on alcoholism. Now, education and educating the public on alcoholism is not AA's purpose. No. Only what AA can and will do for an alcoholic if that alcoholic is willed to let it happen to them. Now, because these agencies, such as the National Council on Alcoholism, all the state agencies on alcoholism, mental health, and retardation, and alcohol and drug abuse, and et cetera, we can go on right down the line, are also trying to help the active alcoholic. They are our friends. And so Tradition Six now establishes the boundaries of this relationship and allow us to work our side of the street and them to work their side of the street, and ain't nobody getting run over jaywalking in the middle. And then we can walk, and each of us do what we've got to do. The reason that the National Council on Alcoholism was started, it was started by the thinking of Bill Wilson and several others to do the things that AA had no business doing, period. And so Tradition Six, "An AA group will never endorse, finance, lend its name to any related facility or outside enterprise lest problems of money, property, and prestige divert us from our primary purpose." Now, the related facility may be a group, uh, outside group combating alcoholism or an enterprise that AA is going to start. And it was a learner that most confronted our young fellowship. And you know what? Today, it still confronts our fellowship, particularly with all the grant money, with all the monies that are available today. Not so bad now, but back when, uh, the huge Davis Bill come in, AAs all over the world were leaving AA going into the drug business. And you'd go into the group and say, "I ain't seen you in a long time." "Oh, David. David, I'm a seven." I said, "What's a seven?" "Well, I work for the government. That's the pay scale." "Oh." And I said, "What are you doing?" He said, "David, all my life, all I've ever wanted to be was an alcoholism counselor." I said, "Well, well, it took you 20 years to admit that you're an alcoholic, and how long are you sober now? Eight months? In all your life, that's all you've ever wanted to be is an alcoholism counselor," you know? Well, thank God agencies found out that just because drunks made a few 12-step calls and sponsored a few, that that was not the qualification to be an alcoholism counselor, and they started an education process and that to be accredited, et cetera, and et cetera, and et cetera. Some have made it. Now, it emptied out. A lot of them went out. Some of them, you know, got drunk, and they ain't ever come back. And some of them got drunk and came back, and some are still sober. And, uh, in, in AA's early days, outside agencies were pretty scary. And so some AA members thought that AA should cover the whole alcoholism field. Well, our old alcoholic foundation, uh, uh, which was incorporated, it was incorporated to do everything in the field of alcoholism, everything in this God's world. It could heal drunks. It could unheal them. It could throw them out of AA. It could do everything in the world. And but that was changed. And years ago, uh, uh, some super promoters in AA built an all-purpose center, including a section for drying out treatment, you know? But what happened? Lawsuits got involved, and it got into the newspapers, and, uh, and, uh, a lot of problems going on. And they'd have, um, meetings. Groups got involved in it, you know? And one group in particular decided it, it, it was renting a building and, and, and, and they had the vacancies out of the next three or four stores. They had a meeting one night, see, about taking it over, and then they were gonna have a, a rehabilitation house in there for the drunks, and then they were gonna make furniture, and they're gonna sell flowers on the corner like the flower folks do and make money for the deal. And then they got to arguing about how you gonna sober 'em up. Are you gonna use phenobarbital and, uh, suppositories, or what are you gonna do with them, you know? Are you gonna bring 'em off, let them walk and shake out a drunk or bring 'em off on bay rum and wine? And they got to arguing, and it got, it got kind of bad. And this actually happened. And, and then the, the door opened up, and a little drunk stuck in. And one of them said, "Who are you?" He said, "I'm an alcoholic, and I want to get sober. Is this where you're…" He said, "Well, go over there and get you some coffee. We got an important business meeting going on, and when we get through with our business meeting, then we'll tend to you." And that's what we mean by diverting away from the primary purpose of the group. And as a result of… Now, that ambitious center, they never got off the ground. Some individual members have found it very successful. Uh, in our days, you know, my God, they ever got… They got every kind of a, a, a house you want. They got a, a three-quarter house, halfway house, quarter house, seven and three-eighths house. Two-millimeter house. They got 'em all the way down to just house, you know. And, uh, um, and they are run by AAs and patronized by other members or prospective members, but money and property are involved. And so therefore, it's been proven wise by our own experience to keep the operation of the facility completely separate from that of an AA group. Any names like the Twelve Step, Four Step, First Step, out of the name. Now, towards outside agencies dealing with alcoholism, the AA policy is very simple, cooperation but non-affiliation. And a group cooperates, for example, if it wants to, by the vote of its members. Nothing is binding in AA. You can't force a group to do anything. A group don't even have to turn its money in. It can do with it whatever it wants to. It has to live with only the consciousness of his own being honest. And, oh, alcohol loves actively dishonest drunks that are sober. They can sit there licking chops. "Yeah, I'm gonna get me another one tonight," you know? And it does. And as a result of it, so, uh, you know, uh, cooperation but non-affiliation. Now, a group cooperates by welcoming referrals from treatment facilities or from moda… The thing that, that I don't understand about treatment facilities, I wish somebody, if you got 'em in this area, go back and tell 'em. Is this. They, they, when they release, they say, "Now, you go to 90 meetings, 90 days, six meet…" But why don't they say, "You not only go to meetings, but stay in AA. Stay in AA." It's the only hope you got out there. Stay in AA. And so, uh, you know, uh, we welcome them from court-committed, you know, and, and, uh, and from institutions. A group can vote on whether it wants them in there or not, believe it or not. Yeah. Or if they want us to participate, come to an open meeting, sit there. Sure can. But in one area, money for a rehabilitation house was solicited at AA meeting, implying affiliation. In another area of the country, AA was listed among the beneficiaries of United Fund Drive. And you say, "Well, somebody goofed." Well, they sure did. Now, AA members employed by outside agencies, we used to call them two-hatters, wear two hats, but tradition six cautions against any such member, uh, against wearing both hats at once. It's impossible for a drunk to wear two hats at the same time because we ain't got but one head. Now, on the job, he or she may be an alcoholism counselor, but he or she is not an AA counselor. There's no such thing as an AA counselor, AA doctor, AA lawyer, AA housewife, AA bum, AA banker. We ain't got but one kind of AA. That's an AA member. It doesn't say whether you're what sex or what color or what preference or whatever it is. And it sure helps if you're sober. That's all. We ain't got but one kind, and that's an AA member. Now, at meetings, you know, at meetings, on the job, as I said, at meetings, he or she is just an AA, not an alcoholism expert. So today, we understand the paradox that the more AA sticks to its primary purpose, the greater will be its helpful influence everywhere. And, you know, we're all perfectionists, and after failing at perfection, we'd gone to the other extreme, and we'd settled for the bottle and the blackout. And then providence threw Alcoholics Anonymous and brought us within reach of our highest expectations. So it became good reason with this kind of thinking, why shouldn't we share our way of life with everyone? And it makes sense, doesn't it? So in the early days, they tried hospitals. They all folded because you cannot put an AA group into business. Too many busybodies mess up the formula. Then AA groups had… Well, in AA, it's almost impossible to have an AA group in business because if you got 30 members, you got 30 dictators. Yeah. Then AA groups had to try education, and when they began to publicly drumbeat the merits of this or that brand, people would start getting confused. And they'd say, "Well, does AA fix drunks, or was it an educational project? Was it spiritual? Was it medical? Was it a reform movement?" So in utter confusion and disgust, AA found itself getting married to all kinds of enterprises, some good and some not so good. Then some AA groups started hounding AA legislators for legal reforms in this business, committing drunks to prisons and asylums. Now, in those days, it made good reading but little else. Then AA became mired into politics, and even AA and outside AA, we, as I said before, found it imperative to take the, the name off of clubs and Twelve Step houses. And so the experience, as a result of our experiences, implanted a deep-rooted conviction that in no circumstances could AA endorse any related enterprise, no matter how good. Because we of A.A. cannot be all things for all people, nor should we try. And then, of course, many of you read A.A. Becomes of Age about the member who thought about taking a public relations job at one of the large distilling companies to educate the public why alcoholics should not consume alcohol. Everybody knows why an alcoholic should not consume alcohol except the alcoholic. Everybody knows it. But that liquor association wanted that member to use his full name in all his advertising, and he was to be described, uh, as its director of publicity and as a member of Alcoholics Anonymous. Now, there couldn't be the slightest objection if such an association hired an A.A. member solely because of his public relations ability and his knowledge of alcoholism, but that was only… That was not the whole story. For in this case, he not only was the, as an A.A. member to break his anonymity at the public level, he was to link the A.A. name to that particular educational project and also that distillery in the minds of millions. Now, I'm gonna tell you the kind of alcoholic I am. If I was drinking, and that monkey got on there with his full face, and he says, "I'm a member of A.A., and I'm working for this Buzzard Liquor Company," I'll tell you what I'd say, and he's sober. My mind says, "Hey, baby. David, baby, you can drink that Buzzard Liquor, and you ain't gonna be no alcoholic." Maybe I'm the only alcoholic in this room who thinks that way. I'm the kind that you tell me, "Don't walk on the grass," I walk on the grass. You tell me, "It's wet paint. Don't touch," and I touch it. Here's the one I love: "Don't take food or drink out of the dining room." Oh, I love it. It's just like these signs in here, "No smoking." But before the meeting, they ought to reverse them. You know what I mean? Yeah, yeah. No smoking. Really. And it, it just, it, that, that is an absolute… It's a demand for an alcoholic to violate it. You put absolutely no smoking in there, and this place would be full of smoke. But if you put, "Please refrain from smoking," you know, no smoking. We, we're pretty good about it now. And so as a result of it, that particular member, he came to his senses and quickly realized that A.A. saved his life, and it had to come first. And he certainly didn't want to be the guy to land A.A. in big-time trouble, and this we certainly do. We were talking about this a while ago before we got started again this evening. Concerning endorsements, our friend said it all. We resolved therefore that we could lend the A.A. name to any cause other than our own, Tradition Seven. Every A.A…. Oh, here's a goodie. Every A.A. group ought to be self-supporting, declining outside contributions. Now, we have to be practical. A group can hardly hold its regular meetings on a street corner with an empty basket and not pay the rent or fill a coffee pot. And as soon as we become active in A.A., uh, uh, group, we learn how many other expenses are involved in making meetings reasonably effective. Then our horizon's broadened. What about that intergroup, our central office? Many of us call there to ask for help. Phone companies do not give free service. God, they're so thankful we're sober and not calling South Pole and asking for a penguin bootlegger or calling Russia or somewhere. You know? And beyond our own local locality, we learn about the A.A. General Service Office and the work it does, uh, for groups worldwide. A.A. activity ought to be self-supporting at all levels, and in every case, if it isn't, the responsibility comes right back to us, our individual members, because we are A.A. We own Alcoholics Anonymous. It is ours, and it doesn't belong to anybody else. And we express the results of Alcoholics Anonymous, the recovery program, and our unity, and our services to the world in which we all live. And so sometimes when we're new, our contributions rattle. You know? You don't see this much in A.A. groups anymore. They don't… They hardly pass a, uh, the, when collecting a coffee can because it is kind of embarrassing. You know, uh, you drop it in, and you put a quarter, and it go plunk, you know? And everybody, it's usually the tightest one in the group anyway. And, uh, and, uh, because, uh, uh, uh, but, uh, you know, and they rustle rather than rattle. In the fancy groups, you know, they p- they got… I guess they either borrowed them or bought them from churches, you know, them plates with the felt in the middle. That's high class. But if you ever watch one, they got a teller at each end of the row to be sure that the collection gets to the back. And one of the funniest things, it's funny, is, it really is funny. In a large group here, and I happened to be in the meeting in New York. And it's a big meeting. Must've had about 350 in there, and they had the secretary's break. And that's when they take up the collection 'cause an hour-and-a-half meeting. And right as they got through the collection, here come four fellas with stockings on their head, and they grabbed the take, and out they went the back door. They robbed the group, you know, right there. Yeah. You know, and in A.A., in the old days, it used to say, "If you got one, put one in. If you need one, take one." They quit doing that when more money disappeared than got put in, you know? And as a result of it, you know, they, but the first members were in a fix. They were busted. And to them, they felt that A.A. needed some outside help, uh, more than the modest gifts that was coming in. And their plans required some big shot ideas of philanthropy. But as one of the greatest friends that Alcoholics Anonymous ever had, and he gave us the greatest piece of experience that A.A. could possibly ever be given, and given to us for nothing, was John D. Rockefeller Jr., an early A.A. friend, who said, "I'm afraid money will spoil this thing, and I'm not gonna be the one that's gonna spoil it." And a few A.A.s had already reached the same conclusion. Gradually, the minority became the majority, and experience showed that our own members ourselves, when we are informed what it is needed for, we could provide enough to finance A.A.'s proper aid. So it's a separate application. Tradition seven is easily understood when we hear about an AA group being started with funds from a federal grant. But then we come to the borderline cases. Groups that put on a raffle for the benefit of their central office and invite the public. Ah, it's nothing wrong if you're gonna put on a raffle as long as our members participate. But when you go out on the street and sell them to everybody and their brother to buy tickets or have a weekly bingo party and invite the public to participate, or have a dance and go out and sell tickets and invite everybody to come in, you know. Now, these projects would be routine for other societies, but for us, such actions just simply mean that we got our hand out again, asking non-members for money. You know, there was a group in one part of the country that they went out, and they formed a group, and, uh, and, and, and they had about five members. And the group didn't grow. It just stayed five members. And then they got one, and they got six, but it didn't grow. But they were real… You know, they went out, and they… And, and like any good thinking drunk does, they didn't go buy ten chairs, they bought fifty. And they're sitting there in these, in this room with fifty chairs and nobody… And they went out and bought, uh, fifty big books to sell. They just knew that everything's gonna be fine. And, but they forgot one thing. You know, you can ask God something, and as long as you sit there, it ain't gonna happen. You know? He said, "Now get up and do it." And so they decided, well, they need to get people in here, so they decided to play bingo on Saturday night. And it would start at, at, at, at, at nine thirty, and the meeting was eight to nine. Well, word got out, and they started coming out there. And that little old meeting, why, the next thing you know, they're coming in at eight thirty to get a bingo seat. And finally, they moved the bingo back to seven o'clock. And but the bingo, uh, games got big, and they were giving away cash prize, and the group started… Not the group, the bingo game. They knocked out a wall, and they had a bunch of people in there, and they invited their neighbors and grandma and everybody to show up. And, God, they were doing real good. It got big, and heck, man, I tell you, they were something else. And they decided, "Well, this bingo's so good, why don't we have another bingo night? Let's have it on Tuesday night." Somebody said, "What about the meeting?" They went, "The heck with the meeting. Them bingos is paying the rent." And so, so anyway, uh, and they got real… Then they moved to another place to where they could accommodate about five hundred people. And then they had to have somebody to take care of it, so they built a little room and got a one-legged drunk in there to clean, clean, clean up the place, put the bingo, uh, cards out, and get the balls ready, and get the proper change and everything. And so he was cleaning up the place one day, and in comes a big limousine, and three well-dressed men walk in there and said, "Are you, you the manager here?" He said, "Yeah." He said, "Got a nice place here." He said, "Can I help you, gentlemen?" He said, "Yeah. Uh, do you have any insurance?" He said, "What do you mean, any insurance?" "Well, you know, fire insurance, explosive insurance, you know." "What are you talking about?" Said, "Yeah, you need that kind of stuff." And then one of the ladies looked at him, and he said, "This is AA. We are a spiritual entity, and God will protect us." And he says, "Is that your answer?" "Yeah." Well, about three weeks, the roof blew off. Well, you know, drunks, we ain't stupid. Sensitive, but not stupid. And one's good, two's better. So they went out and got a bigger place, and the bingo games got bigger. Oh, they had two token AA meetings a week. And then the next thing you know, they had three more visitors. And so, uh, the question was the same, "Do you have insurance?" And you know those folks are, they're different. They don't make 12-step calls on people like we do, you know. And they said, "You know, it'd be a shame if this place should, uh, calamity happen and there are women and children in here, you know." The drunks and I said, "Get out. God will provide." So they left. They said, "Yeah, sure, yeah." And then the roof and the back wall blew off. So the drunks, one's good, two's better, three's too iffy. They went out, and they had a lot of money. So they bought a piece of property, and they built a concrete slab floor for this building with reinforced steel. You could land one of them 747 airplanes on that thing. And they got a Butler Steel building, and dynamite proof, and dropped the ceilings. And bingo games got up as high as 1,200 people. And God, huge amounts of cash money, and they were coming in. They had three more visitors, and he gave them the same answer. Well, the next time that thing blew, it blew concrete slab, reinforced steel floor, delta building, bingo balls and cards all the way into New Mexico. Well, I got a phone call from our general service office and one of the secretaries, and they had the news media up there, not only television, but radio from every one of the networks wanting to know what in the devil is going on. This was broadcast already on the morning show, on the noon show, at the six o'clock news, in the morning. And they want to know is, what's all this gambling and dynamiting. Well, you see, what happened, anytime you use dynamite or explosives, you got the Treasury boys on you, my friend. You bet your extra Secret Service in. They're real nosy about things like that. And they want to know what in the… When they called me, I said, "I don't know why you called me. This is the third time." Well, they saw the errors of their way, and they went and started another group and started working with drunks. And the group just grown. And guess what? They had a business meeting last summer, and they decided to start the bingo again. So that's what we talk about, you ain't got sanity and sobriety forever. Yeah. And you know, often of course, we don't have to ask. Uh, AA is now high on the worthy list of our members. Oh, yes. AA politely turns down many a solicit give requests. Particularly, we do not take from non-alcoholics, period. Our conference voted a limit of five hundred dollars that you give a year to our general service office. Why you lying? Five hundred dollars a year in your will, and it has to be given in the year in which you die, and it can't be perpetuated. Now, you can give a hundred thousand dollars to AA anytime you want to. Just get you a hundred thousand one dollar bills and go to a lot of meetings. You know, money may pose another problem. If a group treasury grows too fat beyond a sensible reserve. Well, there's a simple solution that strengthens our unity a-and advances our purpose, give the excess to AA activities and services. So when our trustees declared the principle that AA must always stay poor, for the principle of corporate poverty was firmly and finally embedded in AA tradition. Now, when newspapers and the other media, news media, got hold of those facts, there was an immediate and profound reaction. To people who are familiar with endless drives for charitable funds, AA presented a strange and refreshing thing. Approving editorials, both abroad and in this country, generated the confidence and a new wave of confidence and respect in the integrity of Alcoholics Anonymous because they pointed out that the irresponsible had become responsible by making financial independence part of its tradition. Self-supporting alcoholics, who ever heard of it? That's one of the greatest things that's happened to us, is the fact and what Rockefeller told us, and that in playing this corporate poverty, you know, it takes very little money to stay sober. We don't need a lot of money because when we get any money, then we get to arguing about what to do with it. And every drunk is a financial expert. You know what an expert is, don't you? That's a drip under pressure. An expert about everything. They get to arguing and fighting over it. Best thing to do is empty it out and give it away. Do whatever you want to with it, whatever the group wants to do. But always remember this, be willing to face the consequences. That's all. So that's not punitive in nature, is it? Tradition eight, Alcoholics Anonymous should remain forever non-professional, but our service centers may employ special workers. Well, spiritual as it is, AA remains very much of this world. The AA tradition, like the seventh, focuses on the buzz, a five-letter word that's not mentioned in any of this business called money. How many of us had to explain to some cynical prospect, "No, I'm not a social worker. I do not get paid for talking with you or sitting with you while you shake out a drunk. We do this because it's part of our work, part of our staying sober." However, this doesn't mean, of course, that the idea of turning professional has never entered any AA's mind. Now, in the lean years, our co-founder, Bill Wilson, he thought that he could become, be, uh, he, because of his experience, he would become a, a lay therapist to earn money and help an alcoholic. And so he went to the, he went to the, the, the, the drunks and said, "Colonel Towns wants me to work there as a deal." And, and, and, and they looked at Bill and said, "Well, you're the head horse. And here you are, you're telling us what not to do, and you're gonna turn around and do it." And so Bill got a nudge from the group conscience at that time that he could never hang out a sign reading, "Bill Wilson, AA faith healer at ten dollars an hour." And so it became clear to the early members of AA that should, no, no member of AA should ever ask or accept payment for carrying a message to somebody else. That's the AA message. About our own personal experience, person to person, face to face. You say, "Well, what about those who are members of AA who work in treatment facilities or who work for agencies?" They are working there as a job. Now, they're there because they're sober. But if they're just sitting there telling their story to them folks, and they ain't doing a job, that's a business. See, the difference between treatment and AA is two. AA is recovery, and treatment's treatment. Now, we do treat alcoholics in AA. You know how we treat them? Real good. But there's, you see, the bottom line in AA is, is not money. No treatment facility can operate without paying its bills. It's gotta get money someplace, somewhere. And they've got a unlimited market out in that world because they're uncovering them more every day. And there are some that are not satisfied. This has nothing to do with AA, but AAs get involved in them and drag it into meetings and drag them into groups and ask them to come and share and all this and all that. And some treatment facilities can't cut the mustard just treating drunks and, and, and other addicted people. They're treating, um, uh, uh, um, uh, stop smoking, weight reduction, and a lot of other things, you know. And then, then some AA members say, "Well, it's all in the same," you know. And I was sitting in a treatment facility not long ago, and one of them, he's telling, "Now, you go to AA, and don't let them give you any guff. Now, David here, alcohol was a chemical of his choice, and you go, uh, Valium was a chemical of your choice over you." And I said, "Wait a minute. I never went to the whiskey store and said, 'Sell me a half a gallon of chemicals.' You can call it whatever name you want to call it. I'll call it what name I call it, and you ain't no more authority than I am about it. But let's just set the ga– the deal straight, that's all. Now, why don't you tell this young man that he's welcome to come to AA? And I'm not gonna ask him whether he's an alcoholic or whether he's an addict or whether he's a gorilla." Let him come on. And then I'm gonna ask him the question, "Do you decide you want… When you decide you want what we have and are willing to go to any length to get it, then you're ready to take certain steps." And it's in the deal, you for yourself will have to make up the mind whether you belong or not, and not what somebody else tells you what you need to do. And the sooner you learn that simple principle of freedom, you got a chance of living in this world. And I said, "You know," I said, "I got to wondering one day, you know, if I die, and if I go to heaven, and I get up there, and the man said," and I said, "Now, where is the meeting? I want to be secretary to A Group up here." And I got to wondering if I got up there and said, "David, you're not even an alcoholic." And then I got to thinking about, you know what? Nobody ever questioned whether I was an alcoholic or not. They just took my word for it. They didn't test me. They didn't take my blood or, or they didn't smell me or nothing else. They just took my word for it. And you know what? I got to listening to them people, and they're just like me. They did the same thing and everything else. And so when the questions rose about our membership and the word of hope sending thousands of alcoholics in search of A, the first intergroup or central offices were usually manned by A volunteers. Now, today, such offices are so busy that full-time employees are needed as well, and naturally, AAs would be better suited for such jobs than, than non-members. But then are these AAs being paid for doing 12-step work? No. They're being paid there to answer the phone, to inform people where AA is. And if it's a real good, real functioning central office, it will also have… And they say, "Well, it, it, is it for an alcoholic?" "No, I'm living with one, and he's driving me crazy." And so whoever's on the phone says, "Just a minute. Here is the number for Al-Anon. We suggest that Al-Anon have you." Or if they say, "No, it's not an alcoholic, but I got a son that's an addict," "Just a minute. Here's the number for Narcotics Anonymous," or, "Here's the number for a group." That is a community service. That is the greatest attraction that our kind of people are here to help people, that God that you'll ever know of in your life. Those people, they turn to us as a court of last resort. And I always carry a list of those things to make it available to people to, to, them. And, and I make it my responsibility because I run into things like this all the time in Alcoholics Anonymous. And to people all in all, and they want to know where is a place that they where can go. And if you don't have any money or third-party pay, is there some place they can go? I got a list of that for you. And this is what the central office is for, to tell a drunk where a meeting is. "Do, would you like to have some literature?" Some church organization calls up, "We'd like to have somebody come and talk to our alcoholism awareness week. Can you send somebody?" The intergroup has got the number. That's the function of those things. And if they're, but if they're on the phone 12-stepping a drunk and telling them about their story all the time, then they're not working at a job. Then that's a paid 12-stepper. This is what we're talking about. However, when the meeting is over with, I mean, when their business day is over with, you know, when their business day is over with, when they go to the group, they're going for themselves, and they're getting paid for their sobri– I mean, their, their sobriety is, is being paid right there. And that's one of the ways we stay sober. The A's call it paying a little premium on your insurance policy, and that's the way it needs to be, and that's the way it is. And so now, as a result of it, you know, today our general service office is huge. In each general service office, you know, we have over 90 some odd employees. Members are actually paid for their business professional skills, working at the, on conference-approved literature and et cetera and et cetera. Now, we do have volunteers, and the volunteers a lot of times, and thank God they're translators. It's very, very difficult to translate the message from one language to another without getting it garbled. For instance, in the German dictionary, there are four different definitions of spiritual. And finding the one word that would fit all of them folks over there that are German-speaking members of AA was quite a chore, and they finally got a good translation of the book of Alcoholics Anonymous. It came out here in the last five or six months. And it is a first, fir… an excellent, excellent, excellent book. And but finding it is tough because why? Uh, we, we need to have people who translate who know street language. It's very difficult. Now, you get someone who has a college degree and a doctorate in, let's say, Italian, and you've got a drunk laying out there in the, in the canal out there in Venice, and he's just retching his guts out. And he writes, and he talk… Now, I never use this word except only when I do traditions, period. It isn't that I'm against it, but I just don't use it. But there's no word like it. You can't substitute for it, and that's the word puke. There is no word like puke. Throwing up ain't puking. Sick at the stomach ain't puking. And he's laying out there, and he writes a letter, "Oh, he's puking in the canal out there." And some birdbrain writes back in Italian, "Well, I did the same." He says, "Well, I think I understand. I accumulated a lot of gas and come through my ears and my nose." And that drunk over says, "What have I got a hold of?" But if you get someone who can speak street Italian, and he writes down there and talks about him puking in the gutter, aha, he's one, too. You see? That is where the power of our sobriety lies. And so, you know, and as a result of it, and, but, uh, and our literature, now please take our, you know, take our literature. Please take our literature. You know, this is one of the most popular pieces of literature that we got in AA. Can't keep it in stock. What happened to Joe, and the other one's what happened to Alan. We can't keep them. We don't know where… And it's comic style, and, and we believe that the reason it's so popular because in comic style it appeals to the basic intelligence of most drunks. And so when, when, when this thing, this thing came out, Lewis R., who was still alive in, from Philadelphia, he was a delegate to the first conference, first Black delegate. And they were getting ready to do this, and Bill asked Lewis said, "Lewis, where are all the Blacks in AA?" Uh, well, he said, "I guess the only reason they're not in AA, they're in the penitentiary." And so he said, "Well, we're getting ready to put this out. What do you think about a Black have a black face?" Lewis said, "Fine, as long as it's not mine." Well, this is a full color press, has to go to the artist and illustrator and everything else. So it went to the artist and illustrator. You always get the cover before you get the inside of it. And it came back and the Black standing up, my God, it was black, black. And the Black looked at it and says, "My God, it'll offend the lighter skinned one," or this or that. "Lighten it up." So it goes back to the artist and illustrator, and it came back, and guess what? It was too light. It looked like a Puerto Rican. And, well, if any of y'all ever lived in some parts of the country, and Chicanos and Puerto Ricans and the Black, well, they just ain't on the best social behavior. So they sent it back and said, "Darken it." So it went back, and it came out this color, chocolate. Not too light, not too dark, universal. And that is the reason that our literature is the greatest asset that we have because it's not one drunk's opinion. It is a collection of experience of universal living in Alcoholics Anonymous. That is the reason you do not see the name of an author on any of our books or pamphlets. The only one that you'll see the name of the author on is only one booklet, and I bet you never notice. It's on the front cover of the 12 Concepts. Down at the bottom it says, "Bill W." It's the only one. It's the only one. Now, you may have somebody say, "Well, what, what's going on? Didn't Dr. Bob say, 'Let's keep it simple?'" That's the precise reason our conference-approved literature expresses simplicity of our fellowship. Unfortunately, too many of our AA literature racks are cluttered up with non-A lit– non-AA literature, and this is what Dr. Bob meant when he said, "Let's keep it simple and don't louse it up with Freudian concepts that appeal to the scientific mind." Tradition nine, "AA as such ought never be organized, but we may create service boards or committees directly responsible to those served." You've got a service board and committee that, uh, operates right here in this facility. Got an office in there. It's organized. You betcha. And it serves AA committee for their literature needs and for the things that it is. And each one can be autonomous. But so let the workers keep it simple were the last Bill Wilson heard from his fellow co-founder of Doctor A. shortly before Dr. Bob's death in nineteen fifty. And where the word "it" means our recovery program, Bill later wrote, "We need to distinguish sharply between spiritual simplicity and functional simplicity. And when we get into actions by groups or areas or AA as a whole, we find that we must, to some extent, organize to carry the message or else face confusion, and confusion is not simplicity." When Tradition Nine speaks of AA as such, it goes to the heart of AA's experience, to the spiritual simplicity of one alcoholic saying to another, perhaps, "Help," and another alcoholic answering, "I know how you feel. We're here to help you." Now, such a relationship could not be organized or could it? No, it's highly personal. It's touch and feel. A non-member who is not familiar, who is not familiar with, uh, with AA, the way we operate, and who is familiar with modern business procedures might examine the AA practice of sponsorship and see it as a haphazard operation. That's the reason why it works, 'cause it's haphazard. Now, now in the nowadays, and drunks, you know, nowadays in the computer age, well, someone, "Why don't you computerize it?" And a drunk comes in, and the group gives him one of them IBM cards, you know, and he fills it out. You ever see a shaking drunk try to fill out one of them things? If it ain't got holes, it'll have holes. And here, and in here, and then we've got a, we've got a IBM cards for every one of our members. And tonight, when the meetings over, the secretary's going down to the IBM place, and we're gonna take all these cards, your card and all of our members, and we're gonna drop them in there, and there's two gonna come out the bottom. Yours and the one who's gonna be your sponsor. We're gonna match y'all's profiles up. Well, it sounds logical, doesn't it? But the problem is this. The time they drop the cards up to the bottom, and it comes down to the, uh, top, down to the bottom, the one who is chosen to be the monkey's sponsor could be drunk. So you can't computerize it. Ours is a highly personal touch and feel. Some drunks you talk to, you can talk nice and quiet. Some you have to holler at, some you have to cuss at, and some you have to take a baseball bat and beat them in the head to get their attention. And by action of the group, we find we do need some organization. You know, if somebody, you know, if, if nobody gets up the program, what's the result? If nobody makes the coffee, what's the result? Nobody answers the phone, answers the literature, uh, uh, request or the mail? No. So in order to avoid such a disaster, one or more members is either agreed to be responsible, or they're elected, or are they requested, or are they appointed or you better. And so all the way from coffee brewers to our general service board, those of us who take part in AA service work are assuming responsibility, not authority. And so as a result of it, this is a highly, highly, uh, uh… And, and, you know, and, and if you're gonna pay them, pay them a decent wage, and then if they don't do the job, you can fire them. But if you ask a member and say, "Well, you're retired, and you're rich, and you ain't got nothing to do, and why don't you come down here and open up and answer the phone and order the literature and count some money and go to the…"
