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[00:00:04.560 – 00:00:04.980] Thank you.

[00:00:04.980 – 00:00:06.050] Hi, everybody.

[00:00:06.050 – 00:00:08.200] My name– hi, everybody.

[00:00:08.200 – 00:00:10.020] My name is Dave Day, and I’m an alcoholic.

[00:00:10.020 – 00:00:11.580] Hey.

[00:00:11.580 – 00:00:16.160] And only because of God’s grace, the miracle of Alcoholics Anonymous, am I sober to this day.

[00:00:16.160 – 00:00:23.500] So my role this afternoon will be sharing AA’s experience and AA’s history on our Twelve Traditions.

[00:00:23.500 – 00:00:33.580] We hear it read all the time in Alcoholics Anonymous that Alcoholics Anonymous is a fellowship of men and women who share their experience, strength, and hope with each other to may solve their common problem and help others

[00:00:33.580 – 00:00:40.980] recover from alcoholism, which is nothing more than a combination of Tradition One and Tradition Five.

[00:00:40.980 – 00:00:44.500] The only requirement for membership is our stop drinking, Tradition Three.

[00:00:44.500 – 00:00:46.240] There are no dues or fees for AA membership.

[00:00:46.240 – 00:00:49.360] We are self-supporting through our own contributions, Tradition Seven.

[00:00:49.360 – 00:00:55.440] AA is not allied with any sect, denomination, politics, organization, or institution, Tradition Six.

[00:00:55.440 – 00:01:00.740] Does not wish to engage in any controversy, neither endorses nor opposes any causes, Tradition Ten.

[00:01:00.740 – 00:01:05.379] Our primary purpose is to stay sober and help other alcoholics to achieve sobriety.

[00:01:05.379 – 00:01:15.140] Every, every alcoholic who comes to AA today is given three gifts: the legacy of the gift of, of recovery, the gift of unity, and the gift of service.

[00:01:15.140 – 00:01:20.619] That was not the case in the early days of Alcoholics Anonymous.

[00:01:20.619 – 00:01:30.620] And as AA began to grow after the Jack Alexander article in nineteen hundred and forty-one, AA, uh, started doing some things, and unfortunately, we have

[00:01:30.620 – 00:01:32.780] too many groups in AA that are doing it today.

[00:01:32.780 – 00:01:35.520] They try to become all things for all people.

[00:01:35.520 – 00:01:38.420] And as a result, whole groups were getting drunk.

[00:01:38.420 – 00:01:39.500] Groups were breaking up.

[00:01:39.500 – 00:01:49.660] And a lot of the members of AA who, who realized that Alcoholics Anonymous, this is life itself for us, went to Bill and said, “Bill, we gotta

[00:01:49.660 – 00:01:55.000] do something.” And so Bill, out of experience, in the middle ’40s, sat down and wrote our Twelve Traditions.

[00:01:55.000 – 00:02:04.560] Now, the, the, the Twelve Steps are read how it works, but the Twelve Traditions are commonly known in AA today as why they work.

[00:02:04.560 – 00:02:14.580] And one of the reasons to, to preserve the how in the middle ’40s, the why had to be written because it b- it was becoming fractured.

[00:02:14.580 – 00:02:15.880] Whole groups were closing up.

[00:02:15.880 – 00:02:22.740] Other groups were trying to, uh, other, other recovery programs were trying to take over Alcoholics Anonymous.

[00:02:22.740 – 00:02:28.760] And the drunks became very, very uncomfortable, and they said, “Well, okay, if we have to start again, we will.

[00:02:28.760 – 00:02:34.580] But we’re gonna have to have some principles.” And so our Twelve Traditions were written.

[00:02:34.580 – 00:02:38.120] And that’s our second legacy, our, our legacy of unity.

[00:02:38.120 – 00:02:45.180] And very implicitly throughout AA’s, uh, traditions is that our admission is that our defects– I mean, our fellowship has its defects.

[00:02:45.180 – 00:02:50.340] And that’s not hard to understand because our fellowship is composed of one hundred percent defects.

[00:02:50.340 – 00:02:54.140] There are no well folks in Alcoholics Anonymous, period.

[00:02:54.140 – 00:03:01.340] And we admit that we not only have character defects as a society, but that these defects threaten us continuously.

[00:03:01.340 – 00:03:10.460] And our traditions are the guide to better ways of living and function and working, and they’re also the medicine for our various group sicknesses.

[00:03:10.460 – 00:03:11.940] And don’t think groups sick, sick.

[00:03:11.940 – 00:03:13.080] Whole groups get sick.

[00:03:13.080 – 00:03:14.580] Whole groups get drunk.

[00:03:14.580 – 00:03:17.859] And, and there was a group that d-didn’t have any women in it.

[00:03:17.859 – 00:03:21.500] And they only had about thirteen, fourteen members, and they got a call from a gal.

[00:03:21.500 – 00:03:24.220] She was out in a tourist court, and that’s what they called them back in those days.

[00:03:24.220 – 00:03:27.520] It wasn’t residencies or Red Roofs or anything like that.

[00:03:27.520 – 00:03:27.780] It was tourist court.

[00:03:27.780 – 00:03:33.360] And they didn’t have any gals to go twelve stepper, so one of the gallant blades in the group decided to go twelve stepper.

[00:03:33.360 – 00:03:35.940] Two days later, he hadn’t come back.

[00:03:35.940 – 00:03:40.660] So they sent another member of the group to check on him and the gal, and they went out and found them both drunk.

[00:03:40.660 – 00:03:44.300] Well, the one that went to set out and check on the first one, he didn’t come back.

[00:03:44.300 – 00:03:47.340] They sent a third one out there, and he found three of them drunk.

[00:03:47.340 – 00:03:51.180] And this went on and on and on, and they finally ended up with only one sober member of the group.

[00:03:51.180 – 00:03:54.900] And he got lonesome telling himself his own story every night.

[00:03:54.900 – 00:03:57.810] So he decided to go check up on him.

[00:03:57.810 – 00:04:04.959] He went out there and found them all drunk, and he said, “Well, as long as they’re drunk, I might as well get drunk.” And they did, and they all got sober and started all over again.

[00:04:04.959 – 00:04:08.420] And so the twev- the Twelve Traditions are the group’s survival.

[00:04:08.420 – 00:04:12.520] And harmony with AA’s Twelve Steps are to each member’s sobriety and peace of mind.

[00:04:12.520 – 00:04:22.570] But the Twelve Steps also– I mean, Twelve Traditions also point straight to our individual defects, for by ac-actual application and practical application, they

[00:04:22.570 – 00:04:25.720] ask us for personal as well as group sacrifice.

[00:04:25.720 – 00:04:33.180] And this is the toughest things a lot of times because we have to remember that we’re, uh, you know, selfishness and self-centeredness is the root of our trouble.

[00:04:33.180 – 00:04:38.520] On any one given day, our selfishness and self-centeredness, it runs rather rampant.

[00:04:38.520 – 00:04:42.820] And that’s good because if it didn’t, then we would have no room to grow.

[00:04:42.820 – 00:04:50.180] And as a result, they ask us to never to use the AA name in any quest for personal power, distinction, or money.

[00:04:50.180 – 00:04:52.780] The traditions guarantee the equality of all members.

[00:04:52.780 – 00:04:53.540] Thank God.

[00:04:53.540 – 00:04:56.880] We have no second-rate members in Alcoholics Anonymous.

[00:04:56.880 – 00:04:58.060] We’re all the same.

[00:04:58.060 – 00:05:08.060] Once we come into AA and we are members of AA, then we’re all a society of equals because the same reason that brings us all to

[00:05:08.060 – 00:05:09.020] Alcoholics Anonymous.

[00:05:09.020 – 00:05:11.920] And that is we couldn’t live out there in the world of reality.

[00:05:11.920 – 00:05:12.860] We couldn’t stay sober.

[00:05:12.860 – 00:05:13.960] We couldn’t stay drunk.

[00:05:13.960 – 00:05:21.260] And when we come in here, w-we’re all the same because we are all spiritually ill.

[00:05:21.260 – 00:05:23.680] And that’s AA’s recovery program.

[00:05:23.680 – 00:05:25.740] Let’s not kid ourselves, you know?

[00:05:25.740 – 00:05:26.820] Let’s not kid ourselves.

[00:05:26.820 – 00:05:29.680] And it’s not that difficult to understand, I don’t believe.

[00:05:29.680 – 00:05:36.060] All in the world we’re doing in AA is making that human spirit that comes with each and every one of us at birth.

[00:05:36.060 – 00:05:39.760] That little thing that kept hollering at us, “Hey, jackass, when you gonna get sober?

[00:05:39.760 – 00:05:41.960] Hey, you’re disturbing me.

[00:05:41.960 – 00:05:43.360] I don’t like being drunk.

[00:05:43.360 – 00:05:46.280] I don’t like doing the things you’re doing.

[00:05:46.280 – 00:05:48.320] I like to sleep at night.

[00:05:48.320 – 00:05:50.020] You’re disturbing my sleep.

[00:05:50.020 – 00:05:53.900] You’re disturbing my rest.” That thing that came with each and every one of us at birth.

[00:05:53.900 – 00:06:01.960] And all we are doing is to quiet that imperious urge and to live with the spirit, to live as a human being in the world of reality.

[00:06:01.960 – 00:06:09.228] For they, they show us how we can best, the traditions, best relate ourselves to each other and to the outside world.

[00:06:09.228 – 00:06:12.068] They indicate how we can best function in harmony.

[00:06:12.068 – 00:06:19.768] So for the sake of the welfare of our entire society, not just our own little selfish selves, because AA is bigger than all of us.

[00:06:19.768 – 00:06:23.988] Without Alcoholics Anonymous, none of us would be here this afternoon.

[00:06:23.988 – 00:06:26.288] God, I shudder to think where we would be.

[00:06:26.288 – 00:06:27.668] Where would we be?

[00:06:27.668 – 00:06:29.128] Man, I’m gonna tell you something.

[00:06:29.128 – 00:06:32.688] This is the last house on the block, baby, and it’s cold out in them weeds.

[00:06:32.688 – 00:06:34.588] I don’t mind telling you.

[00:06:34.588 – 00:06:44.468] And so they ask every, every entity in AA to lay aside all desires and ambitions and unwanted actions that could bring serious division among us or loose for us the confidence of the world at large.

[00:06:44.468 – 00:06:54.908] You know, AA, a lot of, there, God knows how many members of Alcoholics Anonymous who have been here, are here, and maybe will come, that never realize the credibility,

[00:06:54.908 – 00:06:59.588] the credibility that Alcoholics Anonymous has generated in this world.

[00:06:59.588 – 00:07:04.948] We all come to our little meetings, you know, and most of the members of AA could care less.

[00:07:04.948 – 00:07:09.948] All they want to do is come to meetings, hug and kiss and rub up against.

[00:07:09.948 – 00:07:14.288] Who they can fleece out of a few bucks, you know?

[00:07:14.288 – 00:07:16.288] How are they going to make out?

[00:07:16.288 – 00:07:18.068] Go eat the ice cream, you know?

[00:07:18.068 – 00:07:23.548] You know, but when they come in and something explodes in the group or anything else, what happened, you know?

[00:07:23.548 – 00:07:24.628] What happened?

[00:07:24.628 – 00:07:27.988] And so as a result, they don’t realize the credibility.

[00:07:27.988 – 00:07:38.128] Many years ago, when the United, uh, Nations moved from San Francisco to its present headquarters at the foot of, of, of, uh, in the East River, at the foot of

[00:07:38.128 – 00:07:48.008] 45th, between 45th and 42nd in New York City, one of the early addresses of the United Nations was the then former living pres- life president of the United States, Herbert Hoover.

[00:07:48.008 – 00:07:52.968] And Herbert Hoover was there to, to deliver a very important policy talk.

[00:07:52.968 – 00:07:56.888] And right in the middle of the talk, he stopped and made a 180-degree turn.

[00:07:56.888 – 00:08:06.908] And he says, “You know, if the world would live by the most perfect set of principles that he’s ever seen humans to live by and world to live by, that this would be the finest world that God would

[00:08:06.908 – 00:08:17.128] ever know.” And he says, “Those principles are the principles of Alcoholics Anonymous.” Now, there is no known documentation that Herbert Hoover was, uh, ever a member of AA, an alcoholic, or any of his blood

[00:08:17.128 – 00:08:21.708] kin are emotionally attached or members of Al-Anon or Alateen.

[00:08:21.708 – 00:08:30.968] And, um, and as a result, the, uh, and I’ve been fortunate enough to do quite a bit of things for our General Service Office board over a period of years.

[00:08:30.968 – 00:08:37.528] And I managed to get a hold of the invitational list, those of you who were here earlier, the dinner that, uh, John D.

[00:08:37.528 – 00:08:38.108] Rockefeller Jr.

[00:08:38.108 – 00:08:41.068] gave for our fellowship in the Union Club in 1940.

[00:08:41.068 – 00:08:47.668] And the drunks, the, the, the drunks were going to take it, and as you’ve heard me, they were going to, they were going to hustle money out of them.

[00:08:47.668 – 00:08:49.948] And after each one of them, they’d write a little note.

[00:08:49.948 – 00:08:50.888] This one is tight.

[00:08:50.888 – 00:08:52.168] This one is religious.

[00:08:52.168 – 00:08:53.628] This one’s a prohibitionist.

[00:08:53.628 – 00:09:00.708] And, and, and, and after one of them was, was these words, perhaps Herbert Hoover’s best personal friend.

[00:09:00.708 – 00:09:07.528] Well, if, if you’re active in AA and you go to a lot of meetings and you sponsor a little bit, before long, you’ll have a lot of spies.

[00:09:07.528 – 00:09:14.268] And there was a gal that got sober in our group, moved to New York City, and she was in the sales department of the Waldorf Astoria Hotel.

[00:09:14.268 – 00:09:20.468] And knowing that Herbert Hoover, before he died, lived for many years in the towers of the Waldorf Astoria Hotel.

[00:09:20.468 – 00:09:27.068] So I asked Laura, I said, “Laura, see if you can find what floor he was on,” and also gave the name of this gentleman.

[00:09:27.068 – 00:09:29.848] “Go back into the old records if you can,” and this is a long time ago.

[00:09:29.848 – 00:09:32.548] And she called me back and said, “I found them.

[00:09:32.548 – 00:09:39.308] They both lived on the same floor in adjacent suites.” And that’s where, uh, Herbert Hoover found out about the principles of Alcoholics Anonymous.

[00:09:39.308 – 00:09:46.988] Now, in those days, radio was more popular because television was in its infancy, and this was being broadcast over the radio media.

[00:09:46.988 – 00:09:50.268] And meanwhile, there’s always a bunch of drunks sitting around doing nothing, you know?

[00:09:50.268 – 00:09:58.128] Buying airlines, you know, buying airlines, going to Hawaii, going to Bermuda, going this, going there, you know, going to Rose Bowl.

[00:09:58.128 – 00:10:06.268] And they get ready to leave, and they say, “How about loan me a dollar so I can get some cigarettes or some coffee?” And so while they’re sitting there, here come the words over the radio.

[00:10:06.268 – 00:10:13.088] The minute them two words, Alcoholics Anonymous, come out on the radio, well, their ears just jumped out just like jackasses eating briar.

[00:10:13.088 – 00:10:16.148] One of them said, “Did you hear what that man said?

[00:10:16.148 – 00:10:23.637] He said if the world would live by the most perfect set of principles, the most principles of Alcoholics Anonymous.” He said, “Why, we’re the only ones that know anything about AA.

[00:10:23.637 – 00:10:25.108] We’re members of AA and know everything.

[00:10:25.108 – 00:10:31.368] We better go up and tell Bill.” So they borrowed somebody else’s car, and they borrowed some money for gas and everything and off to go to Bedford Hills.

[00:10:31.368 – 00:10:35.188] And they got up there, and Bill was in his little house where he always did his writing.

[00:10:35.188 – 00:10:41.228] And they were, and these drunks that came from downtown Manhattan, their eyes were as big as Coca-Cola bottle, bottoms.

[00:10:41.228 – 00:10:45.928] Now, you have to remember about our kind of people, we do not lie.

[00:10:45.928 – 00:10:47.288] Now, we embellish a lot.

[00:10:47.288 – 00:10:48.888] We color it up a lot.

[00:10:48.888 – 00:10:49.828] We do not lie.

[00:10:49.828 – 00:10:52.068] It’s how we remember.

[00:10:52.068 – 00:10:59.488] And so they ran in there, and Bill saw them and said, “Boys, what’s up?” Now, the story had changed from the time they left downtown Manhattan until they got up to Bedford Hills.

[00:10:59.488 – 00:11:09.528] And they said, “Bill, AA’s best friend, old Herbert.” He said, “Old Herbert Hoo- oh, you know, Herbert Hoover.” He said, “I didn’t even know anything about AA.” He said, “Oh, yeah, he’s been down to the United Nations,

[00:11:09.528 – 00:11:19.748] and he told them that the world better live by the 12 steps of AA and the principles, or the world’s going nowhere.” And Bill was a real drunk, and I was very, very fortunate to meet Bill when I was five and a half years, months sober

[00:11:19.748 – 00:11:26.287] and had quite a few visits with him before he died in 1971, uh, January.

[00:11:26.287 – 00:11:32.768] And, uh, Bill was a real drunk, and he had a long turkey neck, and he loved to smoke Picayune cigarettes.

[00:11:32.768 – 00:11:34.967] And he had a real alcoholic cigarette cough.

[00:11:34.967 – 00:11:37.568] It would start in his toenails and come all the way up.

[00:11:37.568 – 00:11:40.948] And he’d have an af- have aftershock, you know, as it tapered off.

[00:11:40.948 – 00:11:42.308] And he loved to drink.

[00:11:42.308 – 00:11:48.488] God, he, and, and, and, and, and he loved to sit on the floor and, and cross his feet, and he loved to tell all these stories.

[00:11:48.488 – 00:11:51.628] And, uh, and so even Bill got excited.

[00:11:51.628 – 00:11:52.388] He’s a real drunk.

[00:11:52.388 – 00:11:55.088] And the drunks kept saying, “Hey, Bill, guess what?

[00:11:55.088 – 00:11:57.688] We’re the only ones that know anything about AA.

[00:11:57.688 – 00:11:58.768] We’re going to run the world.

[00:11:58.768 – 00:12:00.368] We’re going to run the United Nations.

[00:12:00.368 – 00:12:07.564] Why, we going to be running around in limousines with diplomatic flags up in the front, you know?” Striped pants and swallowtail coats.

[00:12:07.564 – 00:12:09.464] We’ll have diplomatic immunity.

[00:12:09.464 – 00:12:10.264] We can speed.

[00:12:10.264 – 00:12:11.844] We can do anything we want to.

[00:12:11.844 – 00:12:15.103] Can’t you see a bunch of drunks running the United Nations?

[00:12:15.103 – 00:12:20.804] You turn on your television set in the morning, and this voice comes shouted out, “Good morning, world.

[00:12:20.804 – 00:12:23.324] My name is David A, and we’re down here at the United Nations.

[00:12:23.324 – 00:12:33.324] And we’re going to open this meeting this morning with a moment of silence followed by the Serenity Prayer.” “And for you civilians out in this vast world that don’t know the Serenity Prayer, words will come

[00:12:33.324 – 00:12:42.084] along the bottom of the screen, and you can say them with us.” “And after that, we’re gonna, uh, we’re gonna read a portion of chapter five, how this deal works.

[00:12:42.084 – 00:12:46.884] And the ambassador from old Russia is still having a tough time finding out how it works.

[00:12:46.884 – 00:12:48.584] We’re gonna ask him to read one more time.

[00:12:48.584 – 00:12:53.984] And we’re go- and the agenda to be discussed today will be honesty, open-mindedness, and willingness.

[00:12:53.984 – 00:13:02.024] Now, we’re gonna ask you to, to return to your television sets at 4:00 this afternoon, or 5:00 rather, for a very important announcement.

[00:13:02.024 – 00:13:11.914] We understand from a reliable source that the ambassador from Iraq’s gonna take his fifth step with the ambassador from the United States.” Amen.

[00:13:11.914 – 00:13:12.084] Amen.

[00:13:12.084 – 00:13:14.624] Even Bill got, Bill said, “Hey, wait a minute, boy.

[00:13:14.624 – 00:13:15.764] Wait a minute, boy.

[00:13:15.764 – 00:13:16.464] Wait a minute.

[00:13:16.464 – 00:13:21.724] Wait a minute.” AA’s not all things for all people, you know?

[00:13:21.724 – 00:13:30.324] And so the 12 steps of Alcoholics Anonymous stand as a sacrificial character of our life together, and it’s the greatest force of unity that we know in AA.

[00:13:30.324 – 00:13:32.604] Tradition one, our common welfare should come first.

[00:13:32.604 – 00:13:35.184] Personal recovery depends upon AA unity.

[00:13:35.184 – 00:13:37.144] We can knock this tradition out real quick.

[00:13:37.144 – 00:13:42.004] Common problem, common solution, common recovery, common Father, the oneness of one.

[00:13:42.004 – 00:13:51.184] If there’s anyone here at their first AA meeting or if you’re relatively new, I don’t know of a better meeting to be in than right now.

[00:13:51.184 – 00:13:55.484] You’re gonna find out who we are, what we are, what we do, what we do not.

[00:13:55.484 – 00:13:58.024] What we do not.

[00:13:58.024 – 00:13:59.964] Many, many, many have problems.

[00:13:59.964 – 00:14:04.144] Many have problems not understanding who we are and what we are.

[00:14:04.144 – 00:14:10.524] They don’t have any pro- They, they have very little problems, and they don’t understand why a lot of times people walk away from them.

[00:14:10.524 – 00:14:13.983] And that’s ki- and that has to do with a lot of time in…

[00:14:13.983 – 00:14:20.724] You know, I’m not much for what they call temporary sponsorship, and I’ll tell you why, ’cause this ain’t a temporary program.

[00:14:20.724 – 00:14:22.414] Amen, brother.

[00:14:22.414 – 00:14:24.744] You get you one, and then if you don’t like them, quit them.

[00:14:24.744 – 00:14:28.644] Just go get somebody e- if you want to stay sober more than anything else in the world.

[00:14:28.644 – 00:14:33.544] It’s not, it, it, because it’s our, it’s our willingness to do this thing.

[00:14:33.544 – 00:14:37.264] Now, probably no society sets a higher value.

[00:14:37.264 – 00:14:39.244] This, this tradition is like the first step.

[00:14:39.244 – 00:14:43.564] Baby, without the first step, we don’t need the r- remaining 11.

[00:14:43.564 – 00:14:45.964] But with the first step, we need the remaining 11.

[00:14:45.964 – 00:14:55.984] And the first tradition is the same thing because no society in this world, no exception, sets a higher value on the personal r- welfare or the human lives of the individual members as long

[00:14:55.984 – 00:14:58.784] as it’s Alcoholics Anonymous.

[00:14:58.784 – 00:15:03.424] AA today is perhaps only the free society among men and women that’s left in the world today.

[00:15:03.424 – 00:15:04.944] There’s no dues.

[00:15:04.944 – 00:15:06.004] There’s no fees.

[00:15:06.004 – 00:15:07.664] No one can force you to do anything.

[00:15:07.664 – 00:15:08.524] You can come.

[00:15:08.524 – 00:15:09.204] You can go.

[00:15:09.204 – 00:15:10.504] You can stay.

[00:15:10.504 – 00:15:11.044] You can leave.

[00:15:11.044 – 00:15:12.204] You can even drink if you want to.

[00:15:12.204 – 00:15:13.184] You’re no longer a member.

[00:15:13.184 – 00:15:19.984] Total freedom, and we can’t handle it because the good is the enemy of the best.

[00:15:19.984 – 00:15:21.984] Disaster we can handle.

[00:15:21.984 – 00:15:23.384] We cannot handle freedom.

[00:15:23.384 – 00:15:30.984] And but long ago, AA found out that our common welfare had to come first before we had, there could be very personal welfare.

[00:15:30.984 – 00:15:37.324] Our individual sobriety depends upon the group, depends upon, uh, and the group depends upon us.

[00:15:37.324 – 00:15:38.344] Let’s live and let live.

[00:15:38.344 – 00:15:43.944] Unless we learn to curb our individual desires and ambitions, we can damage what?

[00:15:43.944 – 00:15:47.724] The unity of the group.

[00:15:47.724 – 00:15:51.684] Now, why does the group need to be unified?

[00:15:51.684 – 00:16:01.404] So that every member of Alcoholics Anonymous, when they come to a meeting and they come into AA, is given the only thing that we can offer them, and that is a way to live sober in this world.

[00:16:01.404 – 00:16:08.484] And anytime a group gets to arguing about smoking and non-smoking and money and everything else, that diverts away from that deal.

[00:16:08.484 – 00:16:10.304] Go argue about it out in the park out there.

[00:16:10.304 – 00:16:17.224] When you come down to Alcoholics Anonymous and you want to play, we suggest you go to the park, and then you’ll find you’ll be playing out with others that are out in the park.

[00:16:17.224 – 00:16:19.064] Maybe you can form yourself a group, you know?

[00:16:19.064 – 00:16:27.164] And so, uh, our- Now, a lot of groups in AA today, uh, one of the best example is our noisy brother or sister drunk drunk.

[00:16:27.164 – 00:16:33.964] Now, a lot of groups today, you’d be surprised how many members of Alcoholics Anonymous have not seen a wet drunk drunk in an AA meeting.

[00:16:33.964 – 00:16:37.624] Now, if you want to perk your group up, you bring you one in there, baby.

[00:16:37.624 – 00:16:39.244] By God, yeah.

[00:16:39.244 – 00:16:42.944] And, and the groups I, a group I come in, we used to put them on the front row.

[00:16:42.944 – 00:16:43.844] That’s hopeless row.

[00:16:43.844 – 00:16:51.364] Again, they’d come in real drunk, and we’d put a sober member on one side and one side to the other so they couldn’t jump sideways, you know?

[00:16:51.364 – 00:16:56.604] And then we’d put one behind them so if they, say, fell back, they wouldn’t hit their head on the floor.

[00:16:56.604 – 00:17:06.344] Then we’d get the biggest, fattest one in the group, turn his chair around, and let him sit looking at that drunk so he couldn’t jump out ’cause when we got one, we, we captured him.

[00:17:06.344 – 00:17:07.794] I don’t mind telling you.

[00:17:07.794 – 00:17:09.144] He’d get up and go to the men’s room.

[00:17:09.144 – 00:17:10.304] Daddy, four would go with him.

[00:17:10.304 – 00:17:13.154] If he’d go out and buy, got out in the parking lot, there’d be nine with him.

[00:17:13.154 – 00:17:15.364] And then we’d find out who’s talking tonight.

[00:17:15.364 – 00:17:17.314] Uh-uh, no, no, no, no, no.

[00:17:17.314 – 00:17:18.224] They’re too religious.

[00:17:18.224 – 00:17:20.024] We got a wet drunk tonight.

[00:17:20.024 – 00:17:28.884] Let’s get one of them kind that get up and talk one of them barn-burning drunk stories, you know, where they’re drunk for about 30 years, and they shot the cat and run the old lady off.

[00:17:28.884 – 00:17:38.924] Run the old, shot at the police, got locked up, fought, got teeth knocked out, and then after 30 years of drinking, they woke up one morning and suddenly realized they had a minor

[00:17:38.924 – 00:17:40.304] problem with alcohol, you know?

[00:17:40.304 – 00:17:43.444] And so we’d go to, we’d shift.

[00:17:43.444 – 00:17:44.344] Nobody got mad.

[00:17:44.344 – 00:17:46.144] Nobody got mad because they couldn’t talk.

[00:17:46.144 – 00:17:47.144] We had a wet one.

[00:17:47.144 – 00:17:53.044] We’d get one of them, get to telling them weird, wild drunk stories, and that old wet drunk on the front row, he’d, “You don’t know nothing about drinking.

[00:17:53.044 – 00:18:00.004] Let me tell you about drinking.” Somebody said, “Shut up.” Well, you know how a wet drunk acts when you tell them, “Shut up,” don’t you?

[00:18:00.004 – 00:18:01.074] “Make me,” you know?

[00:18:01.074 – 00:18:05.864] So we said, “Shut up,” and way back in the meeting, somebody said, “You can’t talk to that drunk like that.

[00:18:05.864 – 00:18:15.944] That’s one of God’s kids.” Somebody said, “Who said that?” “I said that.” “How long you been sober?” “30 days.” “Shut up.” Now, in

[00:18:15.944 – 00:18:20.464] AA today, not all of them, but you can’t talk to a lot of them 30-day wonders like that in AA today.

[00:18:20.464 – 00:18:21.804] They say, “Don’t you talk to me that way.

[00:18:21.804 – 00:18:23.804] I’m going to go back and tell my counselor,” you know?

[00:18:23.804 – 00:18:33.264] So anyway, and guess what?

[00:18:33.264 – 00:18:34.864] That wet drunk on…

[00:18:34.864 – 00:18:35.714] Now, here it comes.

[00:18:35.714 – 00:18:38.824] That wet drunk on the front row is in hog heaven.

[00:18:38.824 – 00:18:49.144] Here are a bunch of people that are actually thrilled because he’s drunk, thrilled because he’s throwing up, thrilled because he smells bad,

[00:18:49.144 – 00:18:56.784] and are actually fussing with each other how best to take care of him because he’s drunk, and he’s just come from a bunch out there that were fussing at him because he’s drunk.

[00:18:56.784 – 00:18:59.444] And folks, that’s the difference between us and them out there.

[00:18:59.444 – 00:19:00.804] Amen.

[00:19:00.804 – 00:19:05.484] And we can’t ever look for that out there to come in here and start telling us how to do.

[00:19:05.484 – 00:19:06.384] Yeah.

[00:19:06.384 – 00:19:10.424] And, you know, and that’s only one of the rare aspects of the picture, you know?

[00:19:10.424 – 00:19:16.424] You know, uh, uh, back in the old days, you know, uh, they, they didn’t have any women that were, that were sober in AA.

[00:19:16.424 – 00:19:21.064] And when the first woman got sober in AA, a good goddamn drunk says, “My God, AA is going you know where.

[00:19:21.064 – 00:19:23.343] Mm.” “No, no.

[00:19:23.343 – 00:19:27.004] She probably, she probably got other problems,” you know?

[00:19:27.004 – 00:19:30.584] And the first guy to get sober was Florence Rankin.

[00:19:30.584 – 00:19:34.374] And Florence came in right when they were naming the book of Alcoholics Anonymous.

[00:19:34.374 – 00:19:37.984] See, we got our fellowship, the name, guys, Fellowship, from the book.

[00:19:37.984 – 00:19:42.664] And it wasn’t named Alcoholics until after the first two words put on the, on the first printing of the big book.

[00:19:42.664 – 00:19:47.084] And they didn’t know what to call the book up to that time, not then when they were writing the book.

[00:19:47.084 – 00:19:53.284] So well, they, they tried everything in this God’s world to find a name, and they were going to call it A Way Out.

[00:19:53.284 – 00:19:53.314] And so-

[00:19:53.557 – 00:19:58.156] So one of the members lived in, in the Baltimore, Washington, DC area, and he went home one weekend.

[00:19:58.156 – 00:20:02.917] They asked him to check with the Library of Congress to, to see how many books there were out.

[00:20:02.917 – 00:20:13.317] And he sent a telegram back, said, “There’s 12.” Well, the drunk says, “13 would be unlucky.” Then they were gonna call it the Grapevine, but the FBI found out about it because the

[00:20:13.377 – 00:20:16.477] FBI has and still has a monthly journal called The Grapevine.

[00:20:16.477 – 00:20:22.987] And the FBI certainly did not want to have anything to do with the drunks, and the drunks certainly did not want to have anything to do with the FBI.

[00:20:22.987 – 00:20:27.197] When you say we’ve got a magazine called The Grapevine, but read it closely.

[00:20:27.197 – 00:20:29.437] It’s Alcoholics Anonymous Grapevine.

[00:20:29.437 – 00:20:33.897] And the FBI said, “As long as you put those two words in front of Grapevine, it’s yours.

[00:20:33.897 – 00:20:36.077] It separates us.” They still hadn’t a name.

[00:20:36.077 – 00:20:39.377] Now, AA in those days is just like it is, believe it or not, today.

[00:20:39.377 – 00:20:40.617] You know?

[00:20:40.617 – 00:20:41.877] It’d be like today.

[00:20:41.877 – 00:20:42.797] We got…

[00:20:42.797 – 00:20:44.077] They drag members in, you know.

[00:20:44.077 – 00:20:46.317] “Oh, you, you, you got worms in the navel?

[00:20:46.317 – 00:20:51.157] Come on in here and get flushed with this spiritual enema, and it’ll heal you,” you know, or this or that.

[00:20:51.157 – 00:20:53.317] You know, you, you, you, you’re addicted to glue?

[00:20:53.317 – 00:20:54.597] Come on in here, you know.

[00:20:54.597 – 00:20:57.797] Well, they, they were all broke.

[00:20:57.797 – 00:21:02.337] And so they, uh, and they, they hadn’t named the book.

[00:21:02.337 – 00:21:09.437] And so one of the members had a friend who had a tremendous amount of money.

[00:21:09.437 – 00:21:19.457] But the problem was he was confined for the rest of his life in the, as, as a total insane human

[00:21:19.457 – 00:21:20.957] being in an insane asylum.

[00:21:20.957 – 00:21:25.637] Well, this drunk got to figuring, thinking.

[00:21:25.637 – 00:21:35.637] You know where it says in the Big Book, “There are those, too, who suffer from grave emotional and mental disorders, but many of them do recover if they have the capacity to be honest.” He says, “Well, all

[00:21:35.637 – 00:21:45.737] we got to do is to find out if he’s honest.” So, and then we get him to the meeting and in, in, in a fit of temporary sanity, he’ll reach in his wallet and

[00:21:45.737 – 00:21:48.597] he writes a check for millions of dollars.

[00:21:48.597 – 00:21:58.657] So they conned the superintendent of the insane asylum and the head psychiatrist to remand him in this drunk’s custody, and they brought him to this AA meeting where they’re, where

[00:21:58.657 – 00:21:59.437] they’re having the deal.

[00:21:59.437 – 00:22:01.197] And they parked him over in the corner.

[00:22:01.197 – 00:22:05.617] Well, Bill at the Manhattan group always sat in the middle of the floor.

[00:22:05.617 – 00:22:14.117] And he had a three-legged sewing stool with a round seat, and he’d take one leg and point, you to discuss and you to discuss, you discuss, you discuss.

[00:22:14.117 – 00:22:17.697] That later became our triangle with our circle, our logo.

[00:22:17.697 – 00:22:19.837] That old sewing stool.

[00:22:19.837 – 00:22:22.317] So you see, we’re not real inventive.

[00:22:22.317 – 00:22:24.577] We just steal and borrow and beg from somebody, you know.

[00:22:24.577 – 00:22:28.857] And so they were discussing what to call, what the book…

[00:22:28.857 – 00:22:33.637] And the, and the, and the, and the idiot in the corner, he was mumbling.

[00:22:33.637 – 00:22:37.937] And Bill said, “Go shut your friend up over there.” Well, he went.

[00:22:37.937 – 00:22:38.617] He’s disturbed me.

[00:22:38.617 – 00:22:41.727] He went over there, and guess what that idiot, that insane human being was mumbling?

[00:22:41.727 – 00:22:52.407] “Anonymous alcoholic, anonymous alcoholic, anonymous alcoholic, anonymous alcoholic.” He turned around to the rest of the boys, says, “Boys, listen to what he’s mumbling.” And they said,

[00:22:52.407 – 00:23:00.677] “What about Alcoholics Anonymous?” You see, in AA, before you get good, before you get well, just remember one thing.

[00:23:00.677 – 00:23:02.157] Our name came from a nut.

[00:23:02.157 – 00:23:06.437] Alcoholics Anonymous.

[00:23:06.437 – 00:23:16.577] Now, if one wants to read all of the leading up to this about our name and et cetera and et cetera, there was no great flash of light about

[00:23:16.577 – 00:23:16.877] us.

[00:23:16.877 – 00:23:26.217] Now, the name, the two words Alcoholics Anonymous were used very, very, very sparingly in the Cleveland, Canton area, but they were not used at all in the New York area at that time.

[00:23:26.217 – 00:23:37.157] And one of the finest books about what we’re talking about, it’s the greatest chronology of history that we have, was written by an alcoholic, Lois

[00:23:37.157 – 00:23:38.217] Wilson, Bill’s wife.

[00:23:38.217 – 00:23:41.197] It’s called Lois Remembers.

[00:23:41.197 – 00:23:45.917] Lois knew more about Alcoholics Anonymous than any human being alive because she was sober.

[00:23:45.917 – 00:23:53.077] And she saw it, she saw it evolve right in her kitchen, in her bedroom, and in everywhere.

[00:23:53.077 – 00:24:02.957] And so, but, and as a result, you know, like, and but like other societies, you know, we find among us forces that threaten us that alcohol and sex could not.

[00:24:02.957 – 00:24:07.877] These are desires for power, for money, for glory, and, and domination.

[00:24:07.877 – 00:24:09.557] And they’re all the more dangerous.

[00:24:09.557 – 00:24:14.076] So pride, fear, and anger, these are the prime enemies of our common welfare.

[00:24:14.076 – 00:24:21.297] For our, our, for true brotherhood, harmony, and love, fortified by clear instincts and right practices, are the only answers.

[00:24:21.297 – 00:24:27.357] For the preservation of AA’s unity is not only a life-and-death matter for us, but also for alcoholics still recovering.

[00:24:27.357 – 00:24:30.437] And I’m gonna talk a little bit about, you talk about tearing up a group unity.

[00:24:30.437 – 00:24:34.277] There was, there were two atheists in the Manhattan group.

[00:24:34.277 – 00:24:37.277] One was Hank Parkhurst, and the other was another one.

[00:24:37.277 – 00:24:39.217] And I’m gonna tell you something.

[00:24:39.217 – 00:24:45.317] Uh, they used to raise more doggone Cain than anything else.

[00:24:45.317 – 00:24:49.697] And they, they could talk about God and they, and they, and they didn’t see, they didn’t have chapter five.

[00:24:49.697 – 00:24:51.597] So they may read a portion of this.

[00:24:51.597 – 00:24:53.037] They may open up the Bible.

[00:24:53.037 – 00:24:53.997] They, you know, they didn’t know.

[00:24:53.997 – 00:24:55.527] They didn’t start reading, you know?

[00:24:55.527 – 00:25:00.197] Uh, sermon on Boot Hill, et cetera and et cetera.

[00:25:00.197 – 00:25:01.697] And so finally…

[00:25:01.697 – 00:25:05.817] And the other one was, he was Jimmy Burwell.

[00:25:05.817 – 00:25:12.537] Now, Jimmy would argue, and he said, “I don’t want to hear about God in a meeting.

[00:25:12.537 – 00:25:16.877] I don’t believe in God, and I’m sober, and I’m just as…” And that would start the fight.

[00:25:16.877 – 00:25:18.617] Well, the meeting would disrupt.

[00:25:18.617 – 00:25:22.677] They’d bring a new one there and said, “My God, I just come from that, from the saloon,” you know?

[00:25:22.677 – 00:25:29.357] And so it got so bad, the secretary would notify all the members of the group and meet the, and move the meeting, but wouldn’t tell Jimmy.

[00:25:29.357 – 00:25:31.917] Well, Jimmy would find them.

[00:25:31.917 – 00:25:36.357] And they, but, and so they probably, they, they ran out of, they ran out of meeting rooms.

[00:25:36.357 – 00:25:38.817] So, well, so they didn’t know how to get rid of Jimmy.

[00:25:38.817 – 00:25:43.657] You can’t throw anybody out of the group if they’re sober and if they’re, except if they’re raising Cain.

[00:25:43.657 – 00:25:45.957] So they went to see Bill.

[00:25:45.957 – 00:25:52.387] And Bill, Bill said, “Send Jimmy to me.” And so Jimmy came to see Bill.

[00:25:52.387 – 00:25:54.897] Bill said, “Jimmy Dr.

[00:25:54.897 – 00:25:57.757] Bob and myself are going to start an automobile polish company.

[00:25:57.757 – 00:26:01.417] And we need to have somebody go out on the road and sell it.

[00:26:01.417 – 00:26:05.057] It just so happens that Jimmy had the only car in the group.

[00:26:05.057 – 00:26:06.717] And it was an old Lincoln Zephyr.

[00:26:06.717 – 00:26:11.576] Now, a car in those days was very valuable because you could go snatch drunks with them, you know.

[00:26:11.576 – 00:26:17.317] And they were willing to get rid of one of the most valuable assets in the group for peace and harmony and unity in the group.

[00:26:17.317 – 00:26:22.637] And he said, Jimmy, I want you to go out and sell this automobile polish.

[00:26:22.637 – 00:26:32.637] So Jimmy went on the road as the sales manager for a one-man sales force selling automobile polish that never was going to be manufactured just to get him out of

[00:26:32.637 – 00:26:33.217] New York.

[00:26:33.217 – 00:26:36.597] Well, he got down to Philadelphia and guess what?

[00:26:36.597 – 00:26:42.137] Doing whatever good member of AA needs to do to stay sober, he got him a wet drunk.

[00:26:42.137 – 00:26:48.977] And by God, that wet drunk took the bait and they started a little group down there and on and on and on and on and on and on.

[00:26:48.977 – 00:26:50.357] And that’s the way it is.

[00:26:50.357 – 00:26:54.077] And so a lot of times we have to ask them to leave if they raise Cain.

[00:26:54.077 – 00:26:56.837] Then we bring them back when they’re in better shape to hear what?

[00:26:56.837 – 00:26:57.517] The message.

[00:26:57.517 – 00:27:01.897] Because the group must go on functioning regardless.

[00:27:01.897 – 00:27:09.157] And as a result of it, and so you might as well say in AA, you know, that our common welfare has to come first.

[00:27:09.157 – 00:27:13.297] Our second tradition, our group purpose is what one ultimate authority.

[00:27:13.297 – 00:27:19.657] A loving God, as he may express himself in our group conscience, our leaders are but trusted servants that do not govern.

[00:27:19.657 – 00:27:27.897] Now, in the early days of AA, the members quickly recognized that power driver as a potential group wrecker.

[00:27:27.897 – 00:27:29.957] And he or she is still around.

[00:27:29.957 – 00:27:33.437] The member is always sure that he or she is right.

[00:27:33.437 – 00:27:40.317] The member is always happily ready to assume all the burdens of leadership and very grimly unwillingly to give them up.

[00:27:40.317 – 00:27:45.197] But a group does need servants or officers.

[00:27:45.197 – 00:27:46.717] So how do we cope with this dilemma?

[00:27:46.717 – 00:27:48.697] Tradition two is the solution.

[00:27:48.697 – 00:27:55.257] As democracy and both the democracy and our co-founder Bill Wilson’s own words, a benign anachronism.

[00:27:55.257 – 00:28:01.377] A group elects its own officers who have no power to order anybody to do anything.

[00:28:01.377 – 00:28:05.057] So what’s the big deal if you’re elected chairman of your group?

[00:28:05.057 – 00:28:07.297] It’s no honor to be known as the head sick.

[00:28:07.297 – 00:28:12.677] But in Alcoholics Anonymous, we don’t want anybody to have any relents.

[00:28:12.677 – 00:28:15.637] We want to be free to be the head sick.

[00:28:15.637 – 00:28:23.337] And then in most groups, most of the slate rotates out of six months, whatever the group decides it wants to do.

[00:28:23.337 – 00:28:26.857] And nothing is set in stone in Alcoholics Anonymous.

[00:28:26.857 – 00:28:32.197] And so our general service conference nor the board can give any orders to any group member.

[00:28:32.197 – 00:28:35.077] Well, you go and ask, well, who’s in charge around here?

[00:28:35.077 – 00:28:37.177] Well, AA is a spiritual movement.

[00:28:37.177 – 00:28:41.917] And so the ultimate authority is a spiritual concept of the group conscience.

[00:28:41.917 – 00:28:46.217] Its voice is heard when a well-informed group gathers together to arrive at a decision.

[00:28:46.217 – 00:28:49.617] Now, what about that annoying character who’s always right?

[00:28:49.617 – 00:28:50.477] Better listen.

[00:28:50.477 – 00:28:53.257] Maybe just this once they could be right.

[00:28:53.257 – 00:28:57.837] If they are, then they will go along with their first tradition as well as the second.

[00:28:57.837 – 00:29:00.417] And then they’ll conform to the group conscience.

[00:29:00.417 – 00:29:02.737] Does this notion seem cloudy?

[00:29:02.737 – 00:29:05.697] Let’s all think back and remember to our first AA meeting.

[00:29:05.697 – 00:29:12.257] The presence we newcomers felt is the same, was the same and is the same as the group conscience.

[00:29:12.257 – 00:29:14.957] It was real.

[00:29:14.957 – 00:29:16.257] They welcomed us in.

[00:29:16.257 – 00:29:18.477] They didn’t put up any rules.

[00:29:18.477 – 00:29:20.477] They didn’t put up any barriers.

[00:29:20.477 – 00:29:22.337] They just simply said, welcome.

[00:29:22.337 – 00:29:24.557] Come in and sit down and have a cup of coffee.

[00:29:24.557 – 00:29:26.317] And let’s talk about it.

[00:29:26.317 – 00:29:29.437] We understand exactly how you feel.

[00:29:29.437 – 00:29:31.577] That is Alcoholics Anonymous.

[00:29:31.577 – 00:29:33.037] Nothing more and nothing less.

[00:29:33.037 – 00:29:34.257] Tradition three.

[00:29:34.257 – 00:29:37.757] The only requirement for AA membership is our stop drinking.

[00:29:37.757 – 00:29:42.297] Anytime this alcoholic is asked to share AA’s experience, I’m going to share it.

[00:29:42.297 – 00:29:52.396] And at AA, we’re asked to share our experiences, not our opinions, because we find as a result of our experiences in Alcoholics Anonymous that opinions in many, many instances have a tendency to make sick

[00:29:52.396 – 00:29:55.956] people sicker and in some instances to physically kill people.

[00:29:55.956 – 00:29:58.977] We’ve been given a great freedom, and that’s to tell the truth.

[00:29:58.977 – 00:30:01.337] And the only truth we know is about our own selves.

[00:30:01.337 – 00:30:04.717] Whatever’s happened to somebody else, we can suggest you listen to them.

[00:30:04.717 – 00:30:13.077] But this is the only thing that we’ve got to say is our own experience of what it used to be like, what happened, and how it is today, no matter how limited.

[00:30:13.077 – 00:30:19.566] None of us ever thought about talking that way when we were out drinking, did we?

[00:30:19.566 – 00:30:23.697] No, certainly, unless we’re in a bar bragging or drunk bragging someplace.

[00:30:23.697 – 00:30:27.377] And so I’m not here today.

[00:30:27.377 – 00:30:28.937] I’m here for David Sobriety.

[00:30:28.937 – 00:30:31.717] I’m not here to tell you how smart I am, how dumb I am.

[00:30:31.717 – 00:30:34.717] I’m not telling you how experienced I am, how ignorant I am.

[00:30:34.717 – 00:30:36.576] I’m here for David Sobriety.

[00:30:36.576 – 00:30:39.537] That’s all that I ever go to Alcoholics Anonymous for.

[00:30:39.537 – 00:30:41.437] No other reasons.

[00:30:41.437 – 00:30:46.517] And by taking the conditions off of it, my life today is the best David I’ve ever known in my life.

[00:30:46.517 – 00:30:52.657] And so, and I don’t come tell a group how to, how not to, whether they’re violating, whether or not I.

[00:30:52.657 – 00:30:53.816] That’s up to y’all.

[00:30:53.816 – 00:30:57.177] AA has and still concerned about our membership.

[00:30:57.177 – 00:31:07.297] In fact, when strong and heavy publicity first came AA’s way, and even today, when there’s more publicity about alcoholism than ever before, the old timers

[00:31:07.297 – 00:31:13.057] used to say, well, won’t all kinds of odd people show up who have complications, alcohol mixed with pills and other things.

[00:31:13.057 – 00:31:18.697] And in the older days, and even today, we talk about that mythical character called a pure guzzler, you understand?

[00:31:18.697 – 00:31:19.827] Just a drinker.

[00:31:19.827 – 00:31:24.867] Many who come to Alcoholics Anonymous actually thought of that, that they were like that themselves.

[00:31:24.867 – 00:31:29.937] And therefore, when new members began pouring in, their worries started to mount.

[00:31:29.937 – 00:31:33.017] Won’t there be mighty queer people?

[00:31:33.017 – 00:31:34.377] Won’t there be criminals?

[00:31:34.377 – 00:31:37.557] Won’t there be social undesirables and degenerates?

[00:31:37.557 – 00:31:41.557] They asked, mixed with a certain amount of smugness and snobbishness.

[00:31:41.557 – 00:31:44.377] And this is nothing but downright fear.

[00:31:44.377 – 00:31:47.837] You know, we simply do not know who or what’s going to come to Alcoholics Anonymous.

[00:31:47.837 – 00:31:56.066] And since AA has been starting, has begun every kind of human being that’s an alcoholic with every kind of problem in this world practically has found their way to AA.

[00:31:56.066 – 00:32:01.533] And, uh, well, isn’t every organization entitled to have rules for membership?

[00:32:01.533 – 00:32:08.373] Why did AA decide to forego the, the privilege to be inclusive rather than exclusive?

[00:32:08.373 – 00:32:09.313] And that’s simple.

[00:32:09.313 – 00:32:11.913] They tried it, and it didn’t work.

[00:32:11.913 – 00:32:17.333] Back in those days, you used to say, “Oh, you, you, you, you come in, you mean you still got shoes?

[00:32:17.333 – 00:32:18.773] You go over there to that group.

[00:32:18.773 – 00:32:21.233] You mean to tell me you still got a dress?

[00:32:21.233 – 00:32:22.373] You go over to that group.

[00:32:22.373 – 00:32:24.093] You mean to tell me you got a watch?

[00:32:24.093 – 00:32:28.833] You go over to that group.” And they were doing it and segregating and congregating.

[00:32:28.833 – 00:32:30.413] You know, and still today they do it?

[00:32:30.413 – 00:32:31.413] Yeah.

[00:32:31.413 – 00:32:31.743] Yeah.

[00:32:31.743 – 00:32:32.633] Still do it today.

[00:32:32.633 – 00:32:34.833] Still do it today, you know?

[00:32:34.833 – 00:32:45.413] And so, and as a result, and by, and so when AA was 10 years old, they asked all the groups that were in correspondent

[00:32:45.413 – 00:32:47.693] with our headquarters to send in all their membership rules.

[00:32:47.693 – 00:32:57.793] And if all those rules had been enforced every place everywhere at once, it would have been practically impossible for any alcoholic to be a member

[00:32:57.793 – 00:32:58.573] of AA.

[00:32:58.573 – 00:33:03.833] Bill couldn’t be a member under the rules because he drank alcohol and took sedatives.

[00:33:03.833 – 00:33:07.533] If you don’t know what sedatives is, then you ain’t been on them goofies.

[00:33:07.533 – 00:33:09.553] Yeah.

[00:33:09.553 – 00:33:11.013] And Dr.

[00:33:11.013 – 00:33:13.933] Bob, alcohol and barbiturates, you know?

[00:33:13.933 – 00:33:20.473] But you can listen to their tapes from now on, and they talked about the primary problem with alcohol, you know?

[00:33:20.473 – 00:33:29.093] And so, as a result, practically no member could be, no alcoholic could be a member of AA.

[00:33:29.093 – 00:33:33.273] So the rules were thrown out and replaced by one sentence, Tradition Three.

[00:33:33.273 – 00:33:36.373] But then somebody say, “Well, isn’t this tradition itself a rule?

[00:33:36.373 – 00:33:39.953] It does state one requirement for membership.” Well, let’s read it again.

[00:33:39.953 – 00:33:42.813] The only requirement for membership is the desire to stop drinking.

[00:33:42.813 – 00:33:46.073] Now, they don’t mean Welch’s grape juice either, but to stop drinking.

[00:33:46.073 – 00:33:54.753] All right, now, let’s ask, who in AA has been so designated, so appointed, has the degree to determine…

[00:33:54.753 – 00:34:04.753] Now, I’ve been in lots, uh, uh, who and al- I’ve been in a lot of AA groups all over this world, and I’ve never been in an AA group where they got an instrument where you can stick in, down,

[00:34:04.753 – 00:34:11.233] up, and through an alcoholic to see how alcoholic they are or whether they’re gonna stay sober or whether they’re gonna get drunk.

[00:34:11.233 – 00:34:14.233] And no one in AA, no human being.

[00:34:14.233 – 00:34:15.273] No.

[00:34:15.273 – 00:34:16.453] This is the reason why.

[00:34:16.453 – 00:34:17.233] They didn’t read it.

[00:34:17.233 – 00:34:25.473] Chapter five, if you decide you want what we have and are willing to go to any length to get that, and you are ready to take steps.

[00:34:25.473 – 00:34:26.793] We cannot do it for you.

[00:34:26.793 – 00:34:28.393] We cannot take them for you.

[00:34:28.393 – 00:34:30.353] You have to have the desire to do it.

[00:34:30.353 – 00:34:33.753] And then if you screw up, you can’t blame us.

[00:34:33.753 – 00:34:37.693] And if we screw up, we can’t blame you, right?

[00:34:37.693 – 00:34:39.693] Because that was one of the biggest problems we got here.

[00:34:39.693 – 00:34:41.913] We were blaming everything and everybody for our dilemma.

[00:34:41.913 – 00:34:43.793] AA is designed by God.

[00:34:43.793 – 00:34:48.293] You either do this deal and, and face the consequences, or you don’t do it and face the consequences.

[00:34:48.293 – 00:34:50.282] Either way around, you’re gonna have to face the consequences.

[00:34:50.282 – 00:34:51.773] That’s all it amounts to.

[00:34:51.773 – 00:34:54.673] If AA gets more complicated than that, I’m gonna have to go get me another deal.

[00:34:54.673 – 00:34:59.813] And so, that’s the reason why none of us can determine whether you’re not.

[00:34:59.813 – 00:35:02.353] You have to by your own admission.

[00:35:02.353 – 00:35:05.233] Because you see, AA has no definition of alcoholism.

[00:35:05.233 – 00:35:06.393] Thank God we don’t.

[00:35:06.393 – 00:35:10.893] That’s up for them scientists and all them other folks.

[00:35:10.893 – 00:35:12.653] We got descriptions of an alcoholic.

[00:35:12.653 – 00:35:16.153] We got three with the exception of Silkworth and the doctor’s opinions.

[00:35:16.153 – 00:35:21.093] The first one is more about alcoholism, where men and women have lost the ability to control their drinking.

[00:35:21.093 – 00:35:29.493] The second one, in chapter four, that if when you honestly want to, you find you cannot quit entirely, or if when drinking, you have little control over the amount you take.

[00:35:29.493 – 00:35:31.073] And the third one is the first step.

[00:35:31.073 – 00:35:32.953] We admitted we were powerless over alcohol.

[00:35:32.953 – 00:35:33.853] Our lives become unmanageable.

[00:35:33.853 – 00:35:36.373] It doesn’t say you’re an alcoholic because you’ve been in jail.

[00:35:36.373 – 00:35:38.693] It doesn’t say you’re an alco- as a result of your drinking.

[00:35:38.693 – 00:35:44.473] It doesn’t say that you’re an alcoholic because you’ve gotten 19,000 DUIs or DWIs or impaired driving.

[00:35:44.473 – 00:35:47.653] It doesn’t say you’re an alcoholic because you got drunk and robbed a whiskey store.

[00:35:47.653 – 00:35:49.873] It doesn’t say you got drunk and wrote hot checks.

[00:35:49.873 – 00:35:51.593] It doesn’t say you got drunk and took dope.

[00:35:51.593 – 00:35:52.733] No, it don’t.

[00:35:52.733 – 00:35:56.083] The only requirement for AA membership is the desire to stop drinking.

[00:35:56.083 – 00:36:01.293] And that, that, in other words, so that puts it right on us.

[00:36:01.293 – 00:36:06.653] And we’re the ones that decide that we fit into the confines of it, and we can’t force anybody to change.

[00:36:06.653 – 00:36:10.233] The only thing that can change is a power greater than ourselves.

[00:36:10.233 – 00:36:12.353] And this is an inside job.

[00:36:12.353 – 00:36:17.533] I know you hear it a lot out here in California, but it didn’t start in California because AA didn’t start in California.

[00:36:17.533 – 00:36:20.673] It didn’t.

[00:36:20.673 – 00:36:22.053] Neither did it in Texas.

[00:36:22.053 – 00:36:32.263] Neither did– I had to go out of town to an AA group when I was sober about three days to realize the oldest sober member of my group wasn’t Bill Wilson, and AA didn’t get started in the pres- in the, in the suburban

[00:36:32.263 – 00:36:33.193] group of Dallas, Texas.

[00:36:33.193 – 00:36:34.173] It certainly didn’t.

[00:36:34.173 – 00:36:42.313] And so, as a result, this is, uh, uh, the only requirement for membership is the desire to stop drinking, period.

[00:36:42.313 – 00:36:44.273] Nothing more, nothing less.

[00:36:44.273 – 00:36:49.813] Tradition four, each group should be autonomous, except in matters affecting groups, other groups, or AA as a whole.

[00:36:49.813 – 00:36:59.313] Now, you know, a member who does any amount of traveling, you can go from Northern California to Southern California, and the meeting formats are different.

[00:36:59.313 – 00:37:02.513] You know, you can go over to Nevada, and they’re different.

[00:37:02.513 – 00:37:05.593] You go to Oregon, and it’s totally different.

[00:37:05.593 – 00:37:13.773] You go over into the, uh, into the West Central region, which is Montana and Wyoming, and that’s, and that area through the Minnesota, the Dakotas.

[00:37:13.773 – 00:37:15.253] It’s altogether different.

[00:37:15.253 – 00:37:19.733] And so, each group is autonomous, except in matters affecting other AA groups as a whole.

[00:37:19.733 – 00:37:25.193] Now, any member who does any amount of traveling may find the AA spirit much the same everywhere.

[00:37:25.193 – 00:37:28.653] But apart from this inward kinship, there’s vast differences among groups.

[00:37:28.653 – 00:37:37.993] A traveler may find three members talking the steps in a hospital room with a member of AA or in the back seat of a car or under a tree.

[00:37:37.993 – 00:37:41.213] Or you can go where you’ll find an auditorium.

[00:37:41.213 – 00:37:44.753] You’ve got 300, 400, 500 listening to speakers in the church.

[00:37:44.753 – 00:37:50.543] In one part of the United States, respectful silence greets the talker who begins, say, “Hi, David.

[00:37:50.543 – 00:37:52.473] My name is A,” uh, “Hi, everybody.

[00:37:52.473 – 00:37:57.763] My name is David A, and I’m an alcoholic.” And in many other places, uh, they holler hi back.

[00:37:57.763 – 00:38:04.633] In some parts of the country, until you say you’re an alcoholic, nobody will say hi back.

[00:38:04.633 – 00:38:11.753] Uh, and, you know, and in many other places, they introduce themselves by their full name.

[00:38:11.753 – 00:38:13.853] There are one-hour meetings.

[00:38:13.853 – 00:38:14.952] There are hour-and-a-half meetings.

[00:38:14.952 – 00:38:16.033] There are three-hour meetings.

[00:38:16.033 – 00:38:17.153] There are candlelight meetings.

[00:38:17.153 – 00:38:18.693] There’s incense-burning meetings.

[00:38:18.693 – 00:38:22.633] There’s barefoot meetings, meetings every hour of the day and night all over the world.

[00:38:22.633 – 00:38:25.332] And the local group is free to work out its customs.

[00:38:25.332 – 00:38:28.553] Now, up in the Northeast, if you go out there, they get a little bit better.

[00:38:28.553 – 00:38:34.023] I remember when I happened to be a delegate general to the, to the General Service conference, and I believe it was my 10th birthday.

[00:38:34.023 – 00:38:34.553] I don’t remember.

[00:38:34.553 – 00:38:38.813] Wednesday night was a free night, and we went to this big meeting in New York City.

[00:38:38.813 – 00:38:49.173] And there were a bunch of us, the delegates, and they called us the Bible Belt delegates from Texas and Louisiana and Arkansas and Mississippi and Oklahoma and Florida and the Virginias and the Carolinas

[00:38:49.173 – 00:38:50.513] and Tennessee and Kentucky.

[00:38:50.513 – 00:38:54.813] And we’re all, we’re in a meeting, about 20 of us back, you know, and we’re used to hollering.

[00:38:54.813 – 00:38:57.363] And this drunk got up and said, “Hi, everybody.

[00:38:57.363 – 00:38:58.283] My name is Tony.

[00:38:58.283 – 00:39:01.433] Hi, and I’m an alcoholic,” and we all hollered hi back.

[00:39:01.433 – 00:39:02.633] They don’t do that up there.

[00:39:02.633 – 00:39:07.773] And God, them 400 people turned around, thought they must have had about 50 wet drunks in there.

[00:39:07.773 – 00:39:13.333] Now, you have to remember about them people up in them New England states up there.

[00:39:13.333 – 00:39:14.793] Uh-uh, they’re not cold.

[00:39:14.793 – 00:39:16.843] It’s just a defect of character is what it is.

[00:39:16.843 – 00:39:21.353] But now always, freedom brings responsibility.

[00:39:21.353 – 00:39:29.623] And because each group is autonomous, it’s up to each group to avoid any and all action, uh, that, that might harm AA.

[00:39:29.623 – 00:39:33.473] And there have been such actions, or this tradition never would have been written.

[00:39:33.473 – 00:39:39.253] And, you know, and so as a result, you know, in a, so in a way, the fourth st- uh, tradition is like the fourth step.

[00:39:39.253 – 00:39:43.313] It asks each group to take an inventory of its independently planned action.

[00:39:43.313 – 00:39:46.843] Will it harm this group or any other group or AA as a whole?

[00:39:47.653 – 00:39:51.933] So many people wonder how they can function under such seeming anarchy.

[00:39:51.933 – 00:40:00.013] Other societies have to have law and order and punishment and function administered by sergeant at arms or somebody with handcuffs and a gun.

[00:40:00.013 – 00:40:03.573] Happily for us, we find we need no human authority.

[00:40:03.573 – 00:40:07.893] In AA, we got two authorities which are far more effective.

[00:40:07.893 – 00:40:09.893] One heals and one kills.

[00:40:09.893 – 00:40:11.433] There’s God.

[00:40:11.433 – 00:40:13.573] Our Father has said, “Here’s my will.

[00:40:13.573 – 00:40:21.373] Take it and live it and use it,” and alcohol says, “If you don’t take and live and use God’s will, I’ll kill you,” and sometimes it does.

[00:40:21.373 – 00:40:30.973] And so in AA, there is love enough, power enough, punishment enough to conform to God’s will when all the chips are down.

[00:40:30.973 – 00:40:38.933] And at the, at the level, the de- that level, the death sentence hangs over the A member, his group, and AA as a whole.

[00:40:38.933 – 00:40:49.193] So I said there’s authority enough, love enough, and punishment enough, all without any human grabbing the handles of power, and such is AA’s backstop against

[00:40:49.193 – 00:40:50.713] dissolution and its final guarantee.

[00:40:50.713 – 00:40:52.293] That’s the reason why AA will survive.

[00:40:52.293 – 00:40:54.213] Alcoholic who wants to live sober.

[00:40:54.213 – 00:40:57.053] Totally free of domination.

[00:40:57.053 – 00:40:58.453] That’s the reason why AA works.

[00:40:58.453 – 00:41:08.533] We can be led, but we cannot be disciplined because there’s not but one power greater than ourselves can do that disciplining, and that’s

[00:41:08.533 – 00:41:13.633] our, each of our higher powers as we want to call it, more than anything in the world.

[00:41:13.633 – 00:41:18.683] Tradition five, each group has but one primary purpose, to carry this message to the alcoholic who still suffers.

[00:41:18.683 – 00:41:24.753] And every newcomer and some of us learn the hard way that this business of staying sober has to have, take top priority.

[00:41:24.753 – 00:41:28.653] If we fail at that, we cannot succeed in anything else.

[00:41:28.653 – 00:41:35.193] And the fredi- tr- fifth tradition just reminds everyone of us that we should remember our, our primary purpose.

[00:41:35.193 – 00:41:41.973] Very o- thinking often, uh, very often, rather, unthinking enthusiasm puts a group off on a main track.

[00:41:41.973 – 00:41:52.173] I’ve been in a lot of AA groups, and you go if you travel anywhere, and you look around, and up on the bulletin board, uh, they got a bulletin board, not where they put AA service or AA-related conference,

[00:41:52.173 – 00:41:53.033] but other things.

[00:41:53.033 – 00:41:58.853] Babysitting wanted, you know, car wash, sell firewood.

[00:41:58.853 – 00:42:01.733] This is the one I love to see on AA bulletin boards.

[00:42:01.733 – 00:42:02.773] Roommate needed.

[00:42:02.773 – 00:42:06.093] Must be sober at least 48 hours, you know.

[00:42:06.093 – 00:42:10.793] Preferably, preferably opposite sex, you know.

[00:42:10.793 – 00:42:14.333] Or like.

[00:42:14.333 – 00:42:16.113] Doesn’t make a bit of difference, you know.

[00:42:16.113 – 00:42:26.313] And so, as a result, tradition five doesn’t on, on an individual who tells another about a, a, a, a good job, but when the group turns itself into an employment agency,

[00:42:26.373 – 00:42:29.953] the drunk may get confused about what AA’s primary purpose.

[00:42:29.953 – 00:42:38.913] Using discretion, a member may lend a few dollars needed for a meal or a room, or even invite a broke alcoholic to be a temporary guest in your home for a year.

[00:42:38.913 – 00:42:44.033] You’ve never lived until you’ve invited an alcoholic to be a temporary guest in your home, and they stay a year.

[00:42:44.033 – 00:42:44.973] I don’t mind telling you.

[00:42:44.973 – 00:42:48.233] And there’s one of them, and he disappeared.

[00:42:48.233 – 00:42:51.903] And one night, there’s a knock on my door, and here are two…

[00:42:51.903 – 00:42:54.913] Look, J- I don’t know about anybody here.

[00:42:54.913 – 00:43:00.213] Jail is one place to where one hour before you fully come to, you can know where you are by the smell.

[00:43:00.213 – 00:43:04.703] And I’ve been picked up so many times by police, and I’m even laying in skid row and everything.

[00:43:04.703 – 00:43:05.853] There’ll be a knock on the door.

[00:43:05.853 – 00:43:08.333] I just get up and say, “Let’s go.” I know they’re coming.

[00:43:08.333 – 00:43:11.033] And so here were two policemen.

[00:43:11.033 – 00:43:13.433] Now, a policeman is a policeman is a policeman.

[00:43:13.433 – 00:43:20.493] I don’t care if he’s got brush cut hair, smoking a pipe, wearing hood puppies, or he’s got long hair, wearing designer jeans.

[00:43:20.493 – 00:43:21.253] They’re all alike.

[00:43:21.253 – 00:43:22.473] You can just spot them.

[00:43:22.473 – 00:43:25.133] And one of them carrying a long piece of paper.

[00:43:25.133 – 00:43:26.893] Another one got his credentials.

[00:43:26.893 – 00:43:37.093] He said, “Are you so-and-so?” I said, “Yeah.” He said, “We got a search warrant for your house, and we’re looking for a certain car- par- party.” I said, “Well, he, he disappeared about two weeks ago,

[00:43:37.093 – 00:43:44.373] but he left two boxes in the, in the closet in his room where he was staying, and you’re free to come get them.” So they went in.

[00:43:44.373 – 00:43:47.813] They opened up the boxes, and my God, there were transistor radios.

[00:43:47.813 – 00:43:48.773] There were jewelry.

[00:43:48.773 – 00:43:50.693] There were rings and things of that nature.

[00:43:50.693 – 00:44:00.853] They looked at me and said, “Are, do you sure you don’t know anything about this?” And I said, “I don’t know anything about it.” “Well, you’ll have to come with me.” So I go down to, to the city

[00:44:00.853 – 00:44:05.813] jail, and you don’t know what it is to be taken to jail when you’re sober.

[00:44:05.813 – 00:44:07.293] That’s an experience.

[00:44:07.293 – 00:44:13.773] And I’m sitting in the back s- seat of this squad car with this detective, and I’m laughing all the way down to the city jail.

[00:44:13.773 – 00:44:22.533] And I get down there, and they take me before the night desk sergeant, and they say, “We have executed this warrant, and we brought this box here.

[00:44:22.533 – 00:44:32.613] We’re gonna take it to the police property room and inventory it to see where it goes to its rightful owners, but we’re gonna leave him with you.” And after they left, the desk

[00:44:32.613 – 00:44:33.893] sergeant took off his glasses.

[00:44:33.893 – 00:44:35.313] He looked down.

[00:44:35.313 – 00:44:44.093] He looked up at me, and he says, “Sponsor, when are you gonna learn?” I’d already told him about it, you know.

[00:44:44.093 – 00:44:45.373] He said, “Get out of here.

[00:44:45.373 – 00:44:55.693] Go.” Now, e- even when acting on our own, an individual member or, or layman certainly shouldn’t award himself a medical degree, an

[00:44:55.693 – 00:45:02.053] honorary medical degree, and hand out diagnosis and prescriptions and amateur analysis of other people’s neurosis.

[00:45:02.053 – 00:45:12.053] Now, because this exact personal failing is so common in AA, groups and all of its dealings should be extra careful to emphasize that it is

[00:45:12.053 – 00:45:13.773] not invading the medical field.

[00:45:13.773 – 00:45:16.473] And I’m gonna take a lot of time on this tradition.

[00:45:16.473 – 00:45:24.273] I’m gonna tell you about a very, very sad but true experience.

[00:45:24.273 – 00:45:36.233] There was a beautiful girl, and she started hitting the streets when she was 10 years of age, and she got on alcohol and the needle and

[00:45:36.233 – 00:45:39.813] nose candy, you know, got on everything.

[00:45:39.813 – 00:45:45.993] All, every kind of California turnaround, mollies, green, pink, red, Christmas tree lights, you taught it.

[00:45:45.993 – 00:45:50.473] And by the time she was 18 years of age, she’d been in so much trouble.

[00:45:50.473 – 00:45:53.853] She’d been in and out of adolescent Units.

[00:45:53.853 – 00:45:57.993] She had been in and out of juvenile delinquency homes.

[00:45:57.993 – 00:46:02.273] Her parents were so disgusted with her, they wouldn’t have anything to do with her.

[00:46:02.273 – 00:46:04.473] As far as they were concerned, she was no longer alive.

[00:46:04.473 – 00:46:07.253] And she’s about 22, 23 years of age.

[00:46:07.253 – 00:46:09.053] And how she got her money, that was her business.

[00:46:09.053 – 00:46:14.313] And she was strung out on everything, alcohol and everything that you can think of.

[00:46:14.313 – 00:46:20.673] And she was driving one of them sports cars with a fiberglass body, the kind that’ll do 180 standing still.

[00:46:20.673 – 00:46:23.593] And she missed a curve in a tree, and she…

[00:46:23.593 – 00:46:27.413] uh, curve in the road rather, and hu- hit a huge oak tree head on.

[00:46:27.413 – 00:46:31.393] And the front of that fiberglass body just blew up like popcorn.

[00:46:31.393 – 00:46:39.853] And she came through the windshield, and when she did, the top of her head hit the trunk of the tree, and it just crushed it like jelly.

[00:46:39.853 – 00:46:43.193] Well, through some miracle, it did not kill her.

[00:46:43.193 – 00:46:53.233] But after a lot of brain surgery and in intensive care for a long period of time, she was left almost a vegetable, totally

[00:46:53.233 – 00:46:54.613] paralyzed on one side.

[00:46:54.613 – 00:46:58.653] Her mother and father wouldn’t have anything to do with her.

[00:46:58.653 – 00:47:00.253] She couldn’t stay there, so they…

[00:47:00.253 – 00:47:01.823] She was in a city county hospital.

[00:47:01.823 – 00:47:08.873] They went before the commissioner’s court, and they had her committed for life in the insane asylum in the state hospital near Dallas, Texas.

[00:47:08.873 – 00:47:13.673] Now, a lot of times in AA, we ridicule physicians, doctors.

[00:47:13.673 – 00:47:18.773] Oh, they’re the ones that got us on that stuff, you know, baloney.

[00:47:18.773 – 00:47:20.433] We liked it.

[00:47:20.433 – 00:47:23.213] And if they wouldn’t give it to us, we’d go get it.

[00:47:23.213 – 00:47:25.273] Yeah.

[00:47:25.273 – 00:47:25.773] Oh, yeah.

[00:47:25.773 – 00:47:33.573] I guess I’m the only member of Alcoholics Anonymous in this meeting that bought bootleg whiskey from a bootlegger and other things off the streets.

[00:47:33.573 – 00:47:35.393] Yeah.

[00:47:35.393 – 00:47:45.173] And so as a result, and there happened to be a Cuban psychiatrist in that insane ward, a refugee.

[00:47:45.173 – 00:47:50.073] Now, he knew a lot about AA, but didn’t know AA.

[00:47:50.073 – 00:47:51.612] Knowing about and knowing is two different things.

[00:47:51.612 – 00:47:53.913] And somewhere along the line, he’d worked with a lot of alcoholics.

[00:47:53.913 – 00:48:00.613] And as he began to read her past medical record and history, he began to suspect she may be an alcoholic.

[00:48:00.613 – 00:48:05.953] And if she ever had a chance to get well, she did not need to be there with those totally insane people.

[00:48:05.953 – 00:48:15.953] She needed to be over in the alcohol recovery unit to where an alcoholic can get the kind of medicine, the same kind of medicine that you get right here in your group or

[00:48:15.953 – 00:48:17.573] in any AA group, any place, anywhere.

[00:48:17.573 – 00:48:25.133] The kind of medicine that’s unique in the field of Alcoholics Anonymous, and that medicine is called love.

[00:48:25.133 – 00:48:32.673] We don’t understand it when we get here, but you come here tonight at birthday night, and you see it coming through their eyes.

[00:48:32.673 – 00:48:38.133] And you see this beautiful look as a result of we love each other into sobriety.

[00:48:38.133 – 00:48:40.053] We don’t hate each other into sobriety.

[00:48:40.053 – 00:48:43.313] This is the whole essence of Alcoholics Anonymous.

[00:48:43.313 – 00:48:51.453] It’s the greatest force of energy that a human being can exert towards another one as long as there are no conditions.

[00:48:51.453 – 00:48:56.593] And we’re not talking about the kind of love of sex, and we’re not talking about the kind of love of lust.

[00:48:56.593 – 00:49:03.873] We’re talking about just, by God, the desire to live like we’re living and having a lot of fun sober, and we want you to have it.

[00:49:03.873 – 00:49:05.093] And it’s free.

[00:49:05.093 – 00:49:12.603] All you got to do is be willing to be, do the deal like we have done the deal, and we’ll share your experiences with you.

[00:49:12.603 – 00:49:20.333] It’s not going to be perfect, but I’ll tell you what, it’s a lot better than the next to the last day that any of us got sober before we come to Alcoholics Anonymous.

[00:49:20.333 – 00:49:24.633] And so they had her committed.

[00:49:24.633 – 00:49:34.613] And so he went over to the alcohol ward, and he talked to them and said, “If she gets better, I want to have her moved.” Had to go through the commissioner’s court, and they did.

[00:49:34.613 – 00:49:44.673] And they had her in this bed, and as the lady members of AA would come and bring an AA meeting out there, they fell in love with this gal, and they’d just tell her how

[00:49:44.673 – 00:49:52.133] much she’s, “You know we love you.” And of course, she was paralyzed, almost a vegetable, and she didn’t even know how to wash her hair.

[00:49:52.133 – 00:49:55.133] And they, they washed her hair, and they brought her a hair blower.

[00:49:55.133 – 00:49:58.953] She didn’t remember, couldn’t remember how to put on makeup or lipstick.

[00:49:58.953 – 00:50:04.573] And they brought her some pantyhose, and they brought her some designer jeans and some shirts.

[00:50:04.573 – 00:50:07.613] And all of a sudden, her eyes were beginning to open.

[00:50:07.613 – 00:50:11.093] And she started to bloom like a beautiful flower.

[00:50:11.093 – 00:50:17.713] And then one day, they looked up, she was out of the bed, and she was dragging that paralyzed side, and she’s going into the meeting.

[00:50:17.713 – 00:50:20.752] And then one of the da- in the meeting, she giggled.

[00:50:20.752 – 00:50:30.373] And then one day, she held up her hand and said, “I’m so and so, and I’m an alcoholic.” That’s AA.

[00:50:30.373 – 00:50:32.603] Every one of us have gone through this.

[00:50:32.603 – 00:50:36.993] Maybe not to the physical impairment that this poor gal had.

[00:50:36.993 – 00:50:45.393] And so the great day came to where she’d go out on a weekend, provided she had two women, members of AA, to come get her.

[00:50:45.393 – 00:50:45.893] They did.

[00:50:45.893 – 00:50:47.493] They took her all into Dallas.

[00:50:47.493 – 00:50:58.633] And God, when they took her back Sunday, she said, “Can I be a member of AA when I get out of here?” And they said, “Sure, doll.” Well, the great day came where she could be a member, provided

[00:50:58.633 – 00:51:03.553] she had two women, members of AA, as her sponsors, and she had a place to live.

[00:51:03.553 – 00:51:08.312] So they got her a little one-level apartment with a bedroom and a bath and a kitchenette.

[00:51:08.312 – 00:51:12.693] She got a little job being part-time, self-supporting, it’s her own contribution.

[00:51:12.693 – 00:51:15.113] She became a member of the group that I’m a member of.

[00:51:15.113 – 00:51:17.113] This is one of the hardest stories for me to tell.

[00:51:17.113 – 00:51:19.713] And everybody loved her.

[00:51:19.713 – 00:51:25.553] God, she would, she’d be the one man- she’d be on the floor with a toothbrush if she had to clean, because this was home.

[00:51:25.553 – 00:51:27.953] You see, her family had discarded her.

[00:51:27.953 – 00:51:29.773] God, she’d help clean up.

[00:51:29.773 – 00:51:39.773] And then the great night came when she was in one of them closed discussion meetings to where everybody in there is an expert about everything and don’t know a darn thing about

[00:51:39.773 – 00:51:40.173] nothing.

[00:51:40.173 – 00:51:45.213] And the topic for discussion that night, are you really sober if you’re taking medication?

[00:51:45.213 – 00:51:55.253] And it got down to her, and she said because of her massive brain damage that she had to be one day at a time

[00:51:55.253 – 00:52:04.105] for the rest of her life On Dilantin and a mild doses of phenobarbital in order to keep from having seizures and convulsions.

[00:52:04.105 – 00:52:14.125] The minute she said phenobarbital, three members of AA, one five years sober, one three years sober, and one one year sober, jumped up and took nearly every inch of

[00:52:14.125 – 00:52:15.085] hide off that gal.

[00:52:15.085 – 00:52:17.425] They told her that she wasn’t sober.

[00:52:17.425 – 00:52:18.665] She’s taking dope.

[00:52:18.665 – 00:52:26.885] In the group that I belong to, it’s a huge group, about two thousand members, and with a paid secretary, and we have sobriety dates.

[00:52:26.885 – 00:52:35.325] And our, our sobriety dates are filed in the file alphabetical, but not last name, only first name.

[00:52:35.325 – 00:52:38.165] We don’t have to put our last name down.

[00:52:38.165 – 00:52:42.625] And they jumped over and not knowing any different.

[00:52:42.625 – 00:52:52.745] When the meeting was over with, she went in and asked for her sobriety card, registered initial date of sobriety, wrote down that n- the day of that night, day rather, went home

[00:52:52.745 – 00:52:57.245] and flushed all of her prescribed medications down the commode, which she was not abusing.

[00:52:57.245 – 00:53:08.805] Three weeks later, she had a seizure and a convulsion, the kind that Gatorade and honey won’t stop, that

[00:53:08.805 – 00:53:19.085] spiritual praying won’t stop, that honey and milk won’t stop, that saltwater won’t stop, and she died.

[00:53:19.085 – 00:53:27.905] One of her sponsors called me, and she said they called her parents, and they said that’s the best news she’d ever had.

[00:53:27.905 – 00:53:29.625] They wouldn’t have to be worried about her anymore.

[00:53:29.625 – 00:53:33.805] Then she said, “What are we gonna do for a burial?” And I says, “Honey, don’t worry about it.

[00:53:33.805 – 00:53:35.265] We take care of our kind.

[00:53:35.265 – 00:53:45.485] She will not only have a wonderful place in the cemetery and a wonderful service.” Then she said, “Who are we gonna get for pallbearers?” And I said, “I know three.”

[00:53:45.485 – 00:53:55.565] And coming back from the services, the one that was five years sober said, “David, where did we go wrong?” And I just simply quoted word for word

[00:53:55.565 – 00:54:05.925] from our twelfth concept illustrated pamphlet that the AA group and all of its dealings should be extra careful to emphasize

[00:54:05.925 – 00:54:08.265] that it is not invading the medical field.

[00:54:08.265 – 00:54:13.365] All we have to offer is how an alcoholic can recover in AA.

[00:54:13.365 – 00:54:14.665] That’s all, period.

[00:54:14.665 – 00:54:18.625] Now, that’s not an isolated thing.

[00:54:18.625 – 00:54:21.765] It’s happening right now all over Alcoholics Anonymous.

[00:54:21.765 – 00:54:30.445] You’ve never lived until you’ve been in a meeting, and you hear some of the things you hear.

[00:54:30.445 – 00:54:35.085] I wasn’t at this particular meeting, but I know what was said.

[00:54:35.085 – 00:54:39.995] And they got to talking to these people who mentally are not…

[00:54:39.995 – 00:54:46.005] They’re slow because of excessive drinking and using of drugs and other things.

[00:54:46.005 – 00:54:49.645] And they’re telling them, “By God, you either got to do this or that.

[00:54:49.645 – 00:54:52.835] You no good sorry son of a gun,” in front of everybody else.

[00:54:52.835 – 00:55:01.145] And in one day in our group, from twelve o’clock noon after that meeting was left till eight o’clock, before the eight o’clock meeting, three members committed suicide.

[00:55:01.145 – 00:55:05.265] We have no right to monkey with anybody’s head.

[00:55:05.265 – 00:55:07.585] We have no right to monkey with anybody’s emotions.

[00:55:07.585 – 00:55:10.165] All we can do is tell our own story.

[00:55:10.165 – 00:55:16.665] Now, those three members of AA, the one five, the one three, the one one years sober, neither one, none of them were epileptic.

[00:55:16.665 – 00:55:19.725] None of them have ever had brain surgery.

[00:55:19.725 – 00:55:23.125] None of them had convulsions and seizures, but they heard.

[00:55:23.125 – 00:55:33.265] This is what I meant when I said that in AA we’re asked to share our experiences, not our opinion, because we find a result of our experience in AA that opinions in many instances have a tendency

[00:55:33.265 – 00:55:37.745] to make sick people sicker and in some instances to physically kill people.

[00:55:37.745 – 00:55:45.685] Thank God in AA we have a lot of doctors in AA, sure, but thank God we only have one physician.

[00:55:45.685 – 00:55:46.665] That’s all.

[00:55:46.665 – 00:55:48.205] That’s all.

[00:55:48.205 – 00:55:58.325] I am not gonna tell, and I have to h– I happen to have a license to prescribe any kind of medication that there is.

[00:55:58.325 – 00:56:03.025] My DEA number, yes, in the practice of the profession that I am.

[00:56:03.025 – 00:56:07.025] And being a member of AA, I ain’t gonna tell nobody nothing.

[00:56:07.025 – 00:56:08.465] I say, “You go talk to your doctor.

[00:56:08.465 – 00:56:18.505] You go talk to your doctor.” Tradition six, an AA group ought never endorse financial lending AA name to any related facility or

[00:56:18.505 – 00:56:24.565] outside enterprise that promises money, property, and prestige diverted from our primary purpose.

[00:56:24.565 – 00:56:32.225] The related facility may be another outside agency combating alcoholism or an enterprise that AA want to start.

[00:56:32.225 – 00:56:42.365] And, you know, uh, it was that latter that confronted our young fellowship, and even today it still confronts our fellowship, especially all the m- government money, grant money,

[00:56:42.365 – 00:56:44.785] trust money, foundation money.

[00:56:44.785 – 00:56:47.025] But the government money has run out.

[00:56:47.025 – 00:56:52.245] The government doesn’t have any money anymore to fund a lot of the things.

[00:56:52.245 – 00:57:02.025] And a lot of the treatment modalities that are, that are chains all over the country are having some very severe financial times.

[00:57:02.025 – 00:57:06.425] A lot of insurance companies are knocking out third-party pay.

[00:57:06.425 – 00:57:14.425] A lot of companies are having it deleted from their employer insurance contracts for alcohol and drug addiction.

[00:57:14.425 – 00:57:17.045] And so get ready.

[00:57:17.045 – 00:57:19.025] Get ready.

[00:57:19.025 – 00:57:22.685] They’ll be coming to us in droves from the streets.

[00:57:22.685 – 00:57:32.705] The unfortunate thing about it is this, is we’ve got a lot of members of AA today that have never, that are anywhere from a

[00:57:32.705 – 00:57:38.624] year to six and seven years sober, that have never sat with a wet drunk at the bedside.

[00:57:38.624 – 00:57:48.725] They’ve never walked with a wet drunk, stayed with them all night long while they shake out a drunk, working in relays, get the one that, who works at night

[00:57:48.725 – 00:57:52.685] to stay with one of them in the day, get the one who works in the day to stay with them at night.

[00:57:52.685 – 00:57:53.145] Yeah.

[00:57:53.145 – 00:58:01.965] And so towards outside agencies dealing with alcoholism, the AA policy is cooperation but not affiliation.

[00:58:01.965 – 00:58:12.265] And we cooperate, example, by welcoming referrals from treatment modalities, from correctional institutions, or by sponsoring groups,

[00:58:12.325 – 00:58:14.105] AA meetings rather than institutions.

[00:58:14.105 – 00:58:23.065] And so today we understand and accept the paradox that the more AA sticks to its primary purpose, the greater it’ll be.

[00:58:23.065 – 00:58:33.305] And so this brings us now to a tradition that has taken more beating than any tradition in Alcoholics Anonymous other than tradition three, our membership,

[00:58:33.305 – 00:58:35.325] and that is tradition seven.

[00:58:35.325 – 00:58:40.805] Every AA group ought to be fully self-supporting, declining outside contributions.

[00:58:40.805 – 00:58:50.805] The reason that this group, this tradition was read– written is to prevent outside contributions because outside contributions begin to dictate to us how we would be.

[00:58:50.805 – 00:58:56.805] Remember when we talked about, this morning, about the old alcoholic foundation, and it gave the money.

[00:58:56.805 – 00:58:58.725] It was calling the shots about the big book.

[00:58:58.725 – 00:59:00.545] It didn’t realize it.

[00:59:00.545 – 00:59:10.645] And then when AA did grow, grew up, it found that if we’re gonna have the independence, if we’re gonna have the independence to be free and to be sober, then we can’t have any outside influence

[00:59:10.645 – 00:59:11.625] dominating us.

[00:59:11.625 – 00:59:19.045] This is the reason that sixth tradition is so important in our relationship in the field of alcoholism with treatment facilities.

[00:59:19.045 – 00:59:22.645] And remember that our traditions are not treatment centers traditions.

[00:59:22.645 – 00:59:25.545] They’re our traditions, period.

[00:59:25.545 – 00:59:30.124] And so as a result, this is the reason we have to maintain it.

[00:59:30.124 – 00:59:35.145] And as long as we’re willing to do that, every alcoholic comes through gets a good and honest shot.

[00:59:35.145 – 00:59:37.785] But the seventh tradition, we have to be practical.

[00:59:37.785 – 00:59:40.125] A group can hardly hold its meeting on a corner

[00:59:40.944 – 00:59:43.164] And an empty basket would not fill a coffee pot.

[00:59:43.164 – 00:59:48.604] And if we got to get active in AA, we find out what other expenses are involved.

[00:59:48.604 – 00:59:52.424] And sometimes when we’re new, our contributions rattle rather than rustle.

[00:59:52.424 – 00:59:55.204] Now, the first members of AA were in that same fate.

[00:59:55.204 – 01:00:05.364] Very seldom in AA do you see them passing around the collects for money where they pass around a two-pound coffee can, because it’s mighty embarrassing when somebody puts a dollar in there, it slides down, and somebody else puts a quarter

[01:00:05.364 – 01:00:07.324] and goes plunk, and everybody hears it.

[01:00:07.324 – 01:00:16.714] The group I come into, I used to sit next to and reputed to be one of the wealthiest, not only members of Alcoholics Anonymous, but by God, in the United States.

[01:00:16.714 – 01:00:20.704] And the only reason I sat next to him, thought I could beat him out of some money.

[01:00:20.704 – 01:00:23.524] And they passed the basket.

[01:00:23.524 – 01:00:33.784] They passed the basket, and I put a dollar in, and that multi-multi-multi-multi-millionaire, oh my, he, he pulled out one of them old-fashioned peddler’s purses

[01:00:33.784 – 01:00:41.904] that fold over and, and, and had rubber bands around it, take the rubber bands off, open up that snap, run his hand in there, take out a quarter, and he put it in the basket.

[01:00:41.904 – 01:00:44.404] And I’d look at that tight son of a gun, and I’d get a resentment.

[01:00:44.404 – 01:00:46.704] Every time he’d do it, I’d get a resentment.

[01:00:46.704 – 01:00:50.164] Never occurred to me to go move over and sit someplace else where I couldn’t see.

[01:00:50.164 – 01:00:52.604] And one night my sponsor caught me.

[01:00:52.604 – 01:00:54.234] And good sponsors, they spot this.

[01:00:54.234 – 01:01:04.324] He saw my eyes, and he said, “What’s wrong with you?” And I said, “That no-good, sorry son, multi-multi-millionaire, he’s one of your business partners too.” And I said, “I put in a dollar,

[01:01:04.324 – 01:01:15.044] and he puts in a quarter.” My sponsor said, “David, where did you get that dollar that you put in the basket tonight?” I said, “I wrote another hot check.” He

[01:01:15.044 – 01:01:19.984] said, “AA is not interested in that kind of money, and AA doesn’t want that kind of money.” Yeah.

[01:01:19.984 – 01:01:28.764] And in the simplest application, tradition seven is easily understood when we hear about an AA group being started with funds or a grant.

[01:01:28.764 – 01:01:31.704] Now, often, of course, we do not have to ask.

[01:01:31.704 – 01:01:38.844] So when newspapers and other news media got hold of the facts, there was an immediate and profound reaction.

[01:01:38.844 – 01:01:46.664] To people who are familiar with countless and endless drives for charity, AA presented a new and refreshing idea.

[01:01:46.664 – 01:01:54.424] Approving editorials, both in this country and abroad, generated a new wave of confidence and respect in what?

[01:01:54.424 – 01:01:56.164] In the integrity of AA.

[01:01:56.164 – 01:02:04.884] Baby, that’s what we have to constantly guard against losing the integrity of AA.

[01:02:04.884 – 01:02:08.224] Sure, a lot of them come with court papers.

[01:02:08.224 – 01:02:09.204] Let them come on.

[01:02:09.204 – 01:02:13.424] If they’re gonna stay, they’re gonna have to conform to the recovery program.

[01:02:13.424 – 01:02:18.224] If they don’t, they’re gonna be coming back someplace else with another set of, of court papers.

[01:02:18.224 – 01:02:20.284] Who, who are we kidding?

[01:02:20.284 – 01:02:21.404] That’s all.

[01:02:21.404 – 01:02:31.464] We just love them and say, “Here it is.” You know, it’s kind of like when I, when I lived on our first skid row, and I, and I, and I was just a little kid, fourteen, about

[01:02:31.464 – 01:02:32.524] thirteen years old.

[01:02:32.524 – 01:02:41.384] And I’m living off skid row, and as I made the corner, there was a flophouse and a hotel of sorts upstairs.

[01:02:41.384 – 01:02:48.584] And the colored ladies of the e- of the evening would hang out the window, and they’d sing their song.

[01:02:48.584 – 01:02:51.224] It’s right here for you, baby, if you want it.

[01:02:51.224 – 01:02:54.604] And if you don’t come and get it, it’s no fault of mine.

[01:02:54.604 – 01:02:56.804] And AA is about the same way, isn’t it?

[01:02:56.804 – 01:02:58.764] Yeah.

[01:02:58.764 – 01:02:59.524] Yeah.

[01:02:59.524 – 01:03:02.724] And that, that struck me after I got back, you know.

[01:03:02.724 – 01:03:06.004] Only it’s the difference what they got and what we got, I’ll tell you.

[01:03:06.004 – 01:03:10.424] And so when news…

[01:03:10.424 – 01:03:13.244] And the integrity of AA, you know.

[01:03:13.244 – 01:03:22.404] Because they pointed out that the irresponsible had become responsible by making financial independence part of its traditions.

[01:03:22.404 – 01:03:28.864] Tradition eight, Alcoholics Anonymous should remain forever non-professional, but our service centers may employ special workers.

[01:03:28.864 – 01:03:33.924] Spiritual as it is, AA is very much of this real world.

[01:03:33.924 – 01:03:39.984] And the eighth tradition, like the seventh, focuses on that vulgar word that’s not mentioned in either one of them, and that’s money.

[01:03:39.984 – 01:03:44.724] How many of us had to explain to some cynical prospect, “No, I’m not a social worker.

[01:03:44.724 – 01:03:51.584] I do not get paid for talking with you or staying with you while you shake out a drunk or while you’re coming off some of your craziness.

[01:03:51.584 – 01:04:01.824] We do this because it’s one of the best ways for us to stay sober ourselves.” And so as new questions arose, people began to ask a lot of questions about AA.

[01:04:01.824 – 01:04:12.764] And so in order to get the job done, we have to develop certain things in our general service office, in our central offices, in our intergroups, to

[01:04:12.764 – 01:04:14.844] develop so that this thing can grow.

[01:04:14.844 – 01:04:18.714] And, and, and as a result, you know, and we can appreciate it.

[01:04:18.714 – 01:04:22.744] And so as a result, we have volunteers, we have paid employees.

[01:04:22.744 – 01:04:32.964] And you know, one piece of literature, what happened to Joe, where they wanted to put the black face with the other five men at the bar.

[01:04:32.964 – 01:04:37.744] That took two years to get the color of that face just right.

[01:04:37.744 – 01:04:40.504] The first time it was blue serge black.

[01:04:40.504 – 01:04:42.644] It offended all the melodists.

[01:04:42.644 – 01:04:44.224] It offended all the lighter-skinned ones.

[01:04:44.224 – 01:04:46.024] The next time it was too light.

[01:04:46.024 – 01:04:49.104] It looked like a Chicano.

[01:04:49.104 – 01:04:53.854] And I don’t know if any of y’all have ever lived in a neighborhood where the Chicanos and blacks live together.

[01:04:53.854 – 01:04:55.404] It’s like World War VIII.

[01:04:55.404 – 01:04:59.684] So they sent it back for the third time, and it came out just right.

[01:04:59.684 – 01:05:02.444] Not too dark, not too light, but universal.

[01:05:02.444 – 01:05:12.524] That one piece of literature, maybe not in Southern California, has been responsible for bringing more alcoholics black

[01:05:12.524 – 01:05:15.804] than any other piece of literature that we’ve got.

[01:05:15.804 – 01:05:19.824] And one of the reasons that we, we can’t keep them in our literature racks.

[01:05:19.824 – 01:05:20.804] We don’t know where they go.

[01:05:20.804 – 01:05:29.804] And we believe that the reason that they’re so potent and so popular is that they are written in the style that alcoholics can really understand.

[01:05:29.804 – 01:05:31.063] They’re comic book style.

[01:05:31.063 – 01:05:32.044] Yeah.

[01:05:32.044 – 01:05:35.444] Tradition nine, that took three years.

[01:05:35.444 – 01:05:37.544] And this is what Dr.

[01:05:37.544 – 01:05:47.984] Bob meant when he said, “Let’s keep it simple, and let’s don’t lace this thing up with Freudian concepts that appeal to the scientific mind.” Unfortunately, too many of our literature racks

[01:05:47.984 – 01:05:54.634] are cluttered up With that kind of literature and simp– and that kind of simplicity is confusion.

[01:05:54.634 – 01:06:02.334] Tradition nine A as such ought never be organized, but we may create service boards or committees directly responsible to those they serve.

[01:06:02.334 – 01:06:05.294] This group, it has secretary coordinators.

[01:06:05.294 – 01:06:07.334] It has program coordinators.

[01:06:07.334 – 01:06:09.574] These are the committees that we’re talking about.

[01:06:09.574 – 01:06:11.334] It works very beautifully in an A.A.

[01:06:11.334 – 01:06:13.314] group, not only in our general service office.

[01:06:13.314 – 01:06:23.334] Because if everybody comes here as a member of the group, think the light’s gonna be on, think the rent’s gonna be paid, think the coffee’s gonna be made, think

[01:06:23.334 – 01:06:26.654] they’re going up to chair a meeting or talk and, and, and come and nothing happens.

[01:06:26.654 – 01:06:27.234] What happens?

[01:06:27.234 – 01:06:28.574] What happens?

[01:06:28.574 – 01:06:29.934] There’s no coffee.

[01:06:29.934 – 01:06:31.754] There’s no lights.

[01:06:31.754 – 01:06:34.254] There’s no soft drinks.

[01:06:34.254 – 01:06:35.034] There’s no literature.

[01:06:35.034 – 01:06:36.294] There’s nothing.

[01:06:36.294 – 01:06:39.654] And let me tell you something about Alcoholics Anonymous.

[01:06:39.654 – 01:06:41.284] If you’re asked to do something in A.A.

[01:06:41.284 – 01:06:43.894] and you turn it down, don’t gripe at the ones that are doing it.

[01:06:43.894 – 01:06:46.734] The work has to get done.

[01:06:46.734 – 01:06:48.514] It has to get done.

[01:06:48.514 – 01:06:49.174] You betcha.

[01:06:49.174 – 01:06:51.474] And this tradition works very beautifully.

[01:06:51.474 – 01:06:58.754] Also, along all the lines in our central offices, tradition ten, Alcoholics Anonymous has no opinion on outside issues.

[01:06:58.754 – 01:06:59.344] Hence, the A.A.

[01:06:59.344 – 01:07:01.654] name ought never be drawn into public controversy.

[01:07:01.654 – 01:07:05.654] We know that the future safety of A.A.

[01:07:05.654 – 01:07:10.794] greatly depends upon tradition ten of A.A.’s principle of no controversy at the public level.

[01:07:10.794 – 01:07:12.674] And since A.A.

[01:07:12.674 – 01:07:16.394] has begun, there’s n– it’s never been divided by a controversial issue.

[01:07:16.394 – 01:07:26.414] For some deep instinct, we have known that the very– at the very beginning that no matter what the provocation, we A.A.s cannot do anything in groups, in Alcoholics Anonymous homes that will

[01:07:26.414 – 01:07:27.974] divert us from our primary purpose.

[01:07:27.974 – 01:07:33.314] Anytime I divert myself from the primary purpose of staying sober and living the principles of A.A.

[01:07:33.314 – 01:07:35.594] in my own personal life, I got a problem.

[01:07:35.594 – 01:07:41.994] And that problem comes about as a result of turning my back on principles of truth.

[01:07:41.994 – 01:07:44.914] And my whole life today, one day, thank God, A.A.

[01:07:44.914 – 01:07:45.994] has given us a way to do it.

[01:07:45.994 – 01:07:47.794] We do it today, one day at a time.

[01:07:47.794 – 01:07:50.874] And then we start over and over and over and over.

[01:07:50.874 – 01:08:00.914] The Washingtonian Society, a movement among alcoholics that happened in Baltimore about a century and three quarters ago, almost had the answer had they stuck to their primary

[01:08:00.914 – 01:08:01.234] purpose.

[01:08:01.234 – 01:08:05.414] The Washingtonian movement, uh, in two years grew to be five hundred thousand.

[01:08:05.414 – 01:08:11.814] When I got sober in April of nineteen sixty-seven, not counting the ones that got sober and passed on, but at that time in A.A.

[01:08:11.814 – 01:08:16.484] in North America, they only estimated that to have roughly, and that was when A.A.

[01:08:16.484 – 01:08:19.664] got started in thirty-five, sober in thirty-seven, thirty-two years, A.A.

[01:08:19.664 – 01:08:20.244] estimated A.A.

[01:08:20.244 – 01:08:25.934] had only approximately two hundred and seventy-five or three hundred thousand members in A.A.

[01:08:25.934 – 01:08:27.334] And the Washingtonians in two years got it.

[01:08:27.334 – 01:08:28.363] What happened?

[01:08:28.363 – 01:08:29.994] Had they stuck to their primary purpose?

[01:08:29.994 – 01:08:30.514] No.

[01:08:30.514 – 01:08:31.174] No.

[01:08:31.174 – 01:08:33.594] They got involved, they got involved in politics.

[01:08:33.594 – 01:08:36.174] No.

[01:08:36.174 – 01:08:38.734] They became reformers.

[01:08:38.734 – 01:08:44.834] They allowed non-alcoholics to become members of the Washingtonian movement.

[01:08:44.834 – 01:08:49.594] Now, you have to remember about members of A.A., please.

[01:08:49.594 – 01:08:51.844] Members of A.A.

[01:08:51.844 – 01:08:56.054] were, are, and will always be alcoholics, even though we may have other addictions.

[01:08:56.054 – 01:08:58.474] And that umbrella covers it all.

[01:08:58.474 – 01:09:00.554] You’ll find that in the forty-four questions.

[01:09:00.554 – 01:09:06.094] Thank God I happened to be a part of that trustees literature committee at the time when we put it in there.

[01:09:06.094 – 01:09:10.374] And that was done in nineteen hundred and eighty-two, and it hasn’t been changed.

[01:09:10.374 – 01:09:11.474] Yeah.

[01:09:11.474 – 01:09:21.474] And so the Washingtonians, both alcoholic and non-alcoholic, to use their society for their own purpose, they took violent sides in

[01:09:21.474 – 01:09:22.294] the slavery issue.

[01:09:22.294 – 01:09:32.514] Some Washingtonians became temperance crusaders, and within a very few short years, they completely lost their effectiveness, and they collapsed.

[01:09:32.514 – 01:09:34.744] Many think that A.A.

[01:09:34.744 – 01:09:36.834] is the first one that came to this continent, brought…

[01:09:36.834 – 01:09:37.234] Uh-uh.

[01:09:37.234 – 01:09:37.894] No, no, no.

[01:09:37.894 – 01:09:39.054] It came over with the Mayflower.

[01:09:39.054 – 01:09:40.994] God knows how many there have been.

[01:09:40.994 – 01:09:43.754] There’s only around two or three or four that are left.

[01:09:43.754 – 01:09:46.834] And they’re very, very small.

[01:09:46.834 – 01:09:47.744] And the reason that A.A.

[01:09:47.744 – 01:09:56.494] survived is because they had to write the traditions to guarantee that the how would work, because the traditions are why they work.

[01:09:56.494 – 01:09:59.514] And if you didn’t have the why, you never would have the how.

[01:09:59.514 – 01:09:59.674] A.A.

[01:09:59.674 – 01:10:03.054] was getting itself into that kind of trouble, and it worked out real good.

[01:10:03.054 – 01:10:04.674] Oh, here comes a honey.

[01:10:04.674 – 01:10:09.333] Our public relations tradition eleven, our public relations policy is based on attraction rather than promotion.

[01:10:09.333 – 01:10:14.114] We need to always maintain anonymity at the level of press, radio, and film.

[01:10:14.114 – 01:10:18.494] There are but three absolutes in A.A.: absolute abstinence from alcohol.

[01:10:18.494 – 01:10:22.314] The rest of it, you can interpret it any way you want to, but I’m going by what the steps say.

[01:10:22.314 – 01:10:23.274] That’s true.

[01:10:23.274 – 01:10:27.794] The second thing is the absolute freedom for any alcoholic to become a member of A.A.

[01:10:27.794 – 01:10:29.144] or leave A.A.

[01:10:29.144 – 01:10:32.374] And the third absolute is absolute anonymity on the public medium.

[01:10:32.374 – 01:10:38.354] Everything else is up to our own interpretation or whatever we call as a result of our experience.

[01:10:38.354 – 01:10:39.774] But those are the three babies.

[01:10:39.774 – 01:10:45.934] And incidentally, this tradition has not been filled to change to say take TV either, although it’s read.

[01:10:45.934 – 01:10:56.134] How many– I don’t know how many of y’all know it or not, but in order to change a word, a comma, a period, to delete, add to the twelve steps and the twelve traditions,

[01:10:56.134 – 01:11:09.294] it takes three-fourths of our membership all over the world that’s listed in the directory, and

[01:11:09.294 – 01:11:13.274] a minimum of six months’ time has to be allowed.

[01:11:13.274 – 01:11:19.354] It doesn’t mean it can’t be changed, but that is a procedure in which it does.

[01:11:19.354 – 01:11:22.674] That’s a procedure in which it does.

[01:11:22.674 – 01:11:26.434] And so TV has not…

[01:11:26.434 – 01:11:28.234] You say, “Well, why not?” Real simple.

[01:11:28.234 – 01:11:30.754] Radio is audio and films is video.

[01:11:30.754 – 01:11:39.674] Now, the alcoholic who has and is recovering through our program is himself or herself still the greatest attraction that A.A.

[01:11:39.674 – 01:11:40.154] has.

[01:11:40.154 – 01:11:45.174] Suppose a sick alcoholic has never had the good fortune to meet us.

[01:11:45.174 – 01:11:46.934] How are they going to find us?

[01:11:46.934 – 01:11:51.714] His or her search will be difficult if the local group thinks it should be anonymous, too.

[01:11:51.714 – 01:12:01.726] The tradition, one of the greatest attractions that this group can do, and I’m talking about being experienced in group, is that before

[01:12:01.726 – 01:12:07.006] you go out the door, you put your styrofoam cups in the trash barrels inside.

[01:12:07.006 – 01:12:13.445] You don’t stand out and snuff your cigarette butts all over everywhere, so it blows in people’s cars and everything else.

[01:12:13.445 – 01:12:20.686] And they say, “You mean they’re drunk and– they’re drunks, but they’re sober, and they ain’t slopping around and laying around there?” Mm-hmm.

[01:12:20.686 – 01:12:24.706] By God, I better send my Aunt Maisie over there.

[01:12:24.706 – 01:12:27.246] Mm-hmm.

[01:12:27.246 – 01:12:29.706] My Aunt Maisie over there.

[01:12:29.706 – 01:12:30.966] You betcha.

[01:12:30.966 – 01:12:33.056] This is a program of attraction.

[01:12:33.056 – 01:12:34.966] I’m not telling a group how to or not to.

[01:12:34.966 – 01:12:45.306] I’m talking about groups who have been asked to leave facilities such as this and shopping centers such as this in other parts of the country because of their ugly

[01:12:45.306 – 01:12:49.126] behavior outside the doors and also inside.

[01:12:49.126 – 01:12:52.386] And it doesn’t give AA a darn good reason.

[01:12:52.386 – 01:12:56.846] Y’all got the best deal here in Northern California you could ever have in your life.

[01:12:56.846 – 01:12:58.246] You really do.

[01:12:58.246 – 01:13:02.826] You got all the room in the world, heck, and everything in this God’s world.

[01:13:02.826 – 01:13:03.826] That’s what Dr.

[01:13:03.826 – 01:13:12.066] Bob said, “Don’t louse it up.” You got something going that I’ll tell you, there’s a lot of groups all over this world would just love to have.

[01:13:12.066 – 01:13:13.506] And they got it.

[01:13:13.506 – 01:13:19.936] But it wasn’t started with the same attitude that this group had.

[01:13:19.936 – 01:13:23.666] This group’s gone through its old-timer personalities, you doggone right.

[01:13:23.666 – 01:13:29.826] But always remember in AA, there’s three things take care of all the problems in AA, and that’s alcohol, death, and rotation.

[01:13:29.826 – 01:13:31.526] It’ll do the job.

[01:13:31.526 – 01:13:35.346] And so the public relations job.

[01:13:35.346 – 01:13:38.326] Information about AA is offered on all the media.

[01:13:38.326 – 01:13:48.426] In our card, in our conference experience, a member is breaking his or her anonymity when he or she is identified on television as a member of AA and their face is shown,

[01:13:48.426 – 01:13:52.406] whether their name is given or not, because it’s the open face that is the anonymity.

[01:13:52.406 – 01:13:53.986] They got different techniques.

[01:13:53.986 – 01:13:59.006] Now, one of the best ways not to break the anonymity on the public media is don’t get up on the public media.

[01:13:59.006 – 01:14:00.026] That’s all.

[01:14:00.026 – 01:14:02.606] I’m gonna share two stories about that.

[01:14:02.606 – 01:14:10.966] Well, during the presidential election when Ford and Carter were running for president of the United States, and nobody knew when you went to sleep that night who was gonna be president.

[01:14:10.966 – 01:14:16.386] And so I get up every Wednesday morning to go to the barbershop five– I’d get up about five thirty.

[01:14:16.386 – 01:14:18.786] And so I flipped on the television set.

[01:14:18.786 – 01:14:22.526] I didn’t want to feel like a dunce going down there, you know?

[01:14:22.526 – 01:14:27.266] And so I turn on television set, and I got a wall with a mirror, and I had lathered my face.

[01:14:27.266 – 01:14:30.886] And right as I’m coming down with the razor, I hear two female voices.

[01:14:30.886 – 01:14:40.926] And one of them said, “When your husband was drinking, evidently he was a nasty, mean, incorrigible, drinking drunk.” And this

[01:14:40.926 – 01:14:48.086] other female voice says, “You’re being very kind when you describe him in that manner.” And I put the razor down.

[01:14:48.086 – 01:14:52.926] I said, “David, you haven’t had a drink of alcohol, and you didn’t go to bed drunk last night, but you’re hearing voices.

[01:14:52.926 – 01:14:55.946] One strange and one real familiar.

[01:14:55.946 – 01:15:03.426] Sounds like your wife.” So I stuck my head around the corner, and there’s that moderator.

[01:15:03.426 – 01:15:05.106] You know, they got their, their face open.

[01:15:05.106 – 01:15:05.946] They’re not members of AA.

[01:15:05.946 – 01:15:10.126] And I see, and I recognize my wife.

[01:15:10.126 – 01:15:14.256] I’m more familiar with my wife’s backside than I am her front side, I don’t mind telling you.

[01:15:14.256 – 01:15:16.946] And they’re talking about me.

[01:15:16.946 – 01:15:19.346] And I’m building up a resentment.

[01:15:19.346 – 01:15:21.066] So I go down to the barbershop.

[01:15:21.066 – 01:15:22.166] I walk in.

[01:15:22.166 – 01:15:24.406] I get into the parking lot.

[01:15:24.406 – 01:15:30.926] The manager says, “Hey, David, saw and heard your wife on television this morning.” She didn’t mention her name either last night.

[01:15:30.926 – 01:15:39.926] And then I go on into the barbershop, and my God, they must have had twelve barbers, eight manicurists, five shine boys, two cashiers, and a bunch of customers.

[01:15:39.926 – 01:15:41.006] They’re all waiting for me.

[01:15:41.006 – 01:15:47.386] “Hey, David, saw and heard Grace on television this morning.” And I’m building up a resentment.

[01:15:47.386 – 01:15:50.726] And I go back out to my office, and I call her up.

[01:15:50.726 – 01:15:53.886] See, Al-Anon’s traditions are the same as AA.

[01:15:53.886 – 01:15:55.086] Where do you think they got them?

[01:15:55.086 – 01:15:57.726] We give it to them.

[01:15:57.726 – 01:16:00.746] Hoping they’d stay out of our business.

[01:16:00.746 – 01:16:04.266] And they hope they stay out of ours.

[01:16:04.266 – 01:16:05.806] Now, don’t kid yourself.

[01:16:05.806 – 01:16:06.946] Let me tell you something.

[01:16:06.946 – 01:16:14.585] Al-Anon fills that vast void of broken relationships between blood kin and emotionally attached.

[01:16:14.585 – 01:16:18.586] And baby, whether we like it or not, that is the most distorted area.

[01:16:18.586 – 01:16:19.446] Mm-hmm.

[01:16:19.446 – 01:16:27.116] And so anyway, I called up Grace, and I said, “I want to congratulate you that you were on there, and I didn’t know you were going to be on it.

[01:16:27.116 – 01:16:30.046] And you, you, you had the correct shadow method.

[01:16:30.046 – 01:16:32.426] You did everything.

[01:16:32.426 – 01:16:37.086] You observed the anonymity.” I said, “But I want to ask you one thing.

[01:16:37.086 – 01:16:39.466] Why did you have to use…

[01:16:39.466 – 01:16:41.126] You didn’t use your first name, Grace.

[01:16:41.126 – 01:16:50.406] Why did you have to use the first name of the woman that you got accused– that you accused me of getting locked up in jail the last time?” She says, “Ha ha ha.

[01:16:50.406 – 01:16:55.616] That’s what’s called live and let live, buster, honey.” Yeah.

[01:16:55.616 – 01:16:55.716] Yeah.

[01:16:55.716 – 01:17:01.846] Another time on one of them radio deals, you know, where they call in drunks call in, crazy people call in, re…

[01:17:01.846 – 01:17:05.506] At eleven thirty at night, I’m sitting there at eleven thirty at night.

[01:17:05.506 – 01:17:08.766] There’s a little kid, and he’s listening to the radio.

[01:17:08.766 – 01:17:11.536] And he runs in, he wakes up his mama.

[01:17:11.536 – 01:17:12.626] He says, “Mama, wake up.

[01:17:12.626 – 01:17:14.826] Listen to the radio.

[01:17:14.826 – 01:17:18.726] Our dentist is on the radio, and he’s a drunk.” He recognized my voice.

[01:17:18.726 – 01:17:22.306] About two weeks later, that little monster had an appointment with me.

[01:17:22.306 – 01:17:32.166] And his mother drug him in, and she said, “Tell me before you start on him, how long has he, how long have you been sober and a member of AA?” At that time, I think it was about sixteen years.

[01:17:32.166 – 01:17:42.286] And she said, “Your little patient this morning, his grandfather passed away last December, and he was nineteen continuous years sober

[01:17:42.286 – 01:17:47.826] in AA.” And I’m one of these that believes if we do the things right, we sure hear a lot of good things.

[01:17:47.826 – 01:17:48.746] I don’t, can’t tell you.

[01:17:48.746 – 01:17:53.746] And we come to find out that anonymity is a protective coat that guards our society.

[01:17:53.746 – 01:18:00.686] Tradition Twelve, anonymity is the spiritual foundation of all of our traditions, ever reminding us to place principles before personalities.

[01:18:00.686 – 01:18:09.866] Let us always remember that anonymity, not taking credit for our own or anybody else’s recovery, is humility at work.

[01:18:09.866 – 01:18:17.726] You see, if I’m going to take credit for getting another drunk sober, then I’ve got to take the credit if he gets drunk.

[01:18:17.726 – 01:18:23.906] Anonymity, as we observe it in AA, is at root a simple expression of humility.

[01:18:23.906 – 01:18:34.406] When we use the twelve steps to recover, few, uh, from alcoholism, we’re each talking about active, real humility, achieve real humility,

[01:18:34.406 – 01:18:40.566] to put our self-respect on a solid base of truth rather than fantasies and fictions about ourself.

[01:18:40.566 – 01:18:50.866] When we use the twelve traditions to work together in AA, we’re all trying to achieve real humility as individual members by recognizing our true place in AA

[01:18:50.866 – 01:18:55.466] as a fellowship and by recognizing AA’s true place in the world.

[01:18:55.466 – 01:18:58.466] And all of us are just alcoholics working together.

[01:18:58.466 – 01:19:07.786] If we’re given s- jobs to do in AA, that it’s, it’s, it’s, it’s an opportunity to serve, not to govern, not to flaunt in anybody else’s face.

[01:19:07.786 – 01:19:18.126] We do not want to sell our program as a surefire remedy in extravagant terms or for most by, by identifying only the noted people in AA, the athletes,

[01:19:18.126 – 01:19:23.066] the actors, the birdbrains, the rest of them.

[01:19:23.066 – 01:19:24.606] No, no, no.

[01:19:24.606 – 01:19:27.666] Thereby implying that sobriety is of their own doing.

[01:19:27.666 – 01:19:32.606] Tradition Twelve reminds us we have something stronger than human personalities to fall back on.

[01:19:32.606 – 01:19:33.916] They reflect each o…

[01:19:34.039 – 01:19:35.099] And our spiritual values.

[01:19:35.099 – 01:19:45.499] And with this tradition, both as individuals, uh, both, and as a fellowship, we humbly acknowledge our dependence

[01:19:45.499 – 01:19:47.599] upon a power greater than ourselves.

[01:19:47.599 – 01:19:52.199] I wanna thank you, and then we’ll rest for a little while, and then we’ll do the last one.

[01:19:52.199 – 01:19:54.279] Thank you very, very much.

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