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Source: 1970 Miami International Convention – 1970 Miami Int, Fri Nite Big Meeting.mp3 File: 1970-miami-international-convention-1970-miami-int-fri-nite-big-meeting.mp3 Duration: 00:46:28
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For those of you who were not in the grand ballroom last night, my name is Bob Hitchens and I'm an alcoholic. You know, I was in a coffee shop yesterday and a guy came in with orange hair and I said to my wife, look at that nut over there, he's got orange hair. She said, who are you calling a nut? What do you think about somebody that agrees to stand up in front of 11,000 drunks and get them all quiet by 8 o'clock?
Well, that's my job and it's really not very tough. Everybody is quiet except me. So I'd like to get this meeting started now and I'll ask for a moment of silence. Thank you. Now I'm going to ask one of our general service trustees, who is one of our two lady trustees, to come up here and open our meeting by reading the Serenity Prayer, which I know you will all want to join in. Ruth Weir. Hi everybody. My name is Ruth Weir and I am an alcoholic.
Would you all like to rise and join me in the Serenity Prayer? God grant me serenity to accept things I cannot change, courage to change the things I can, and wisdom to know the difference. Amen. For those members of the press who may not be familiar with our tradition of anonymity, may I explain it by saying that our tradition of anonymity applies to the maintaining of anonymity, the maintaining of anonymity at the public level. We respectfully ask that no AA speaker or member be identified by full name or picture in published or broadcast reports of our meetings.
The assurance of anonymity is essential to our efforts to help other alcoholics and our tradition of anonymity helps remind us that AA principles come before personalities. Thank you. We have just a few announcements before we get into our program and I would like to start out by asking that no pictures be taken by anyone at this meeting. There will be a panoramic photograph available for purchase at the Fontainebleau and that will be the only picture, that will be the official picture taken by the convention photographer and of course it will not identify any member of this audience.
No taping by guests will be permitted. Orders for professional tapes and cassettes of all meetings except the workshops are being taken at the Fontainebleau and here at Convention Hall and you can order them up at the hotel. As you know free bus service is available to and from the Convention Hall at major hotels. Schedules are available at the information booth at the Fontainebleau and your convention badge is your admission ticket.
There are a few breakfast tickets left for the Al-Anon breakfast on Sunday morning and you can get those either at the Eden Rock or the Fontainebleau as long as they last. I might just point out also that the breakfast will be at 8 o'clock and not at 8.30 as stated on the tickets.
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I also want to remind you that the workshop meetings scheduled for the North and South card rooms will be held instead in the Club Gigi and the Champagne Room respectively. A Spanish speaking meeting will be held for those interested in the Fontaine Room at midnight on Saturday. We've had a number of inquiries about the souvenir program and I want to let you know that yes, you can buy more than one copy.
The program and souvenir pen are available at the Fontainebleau for a dollar and a half. Also the best cartoons from the Grapevine and favorite editorials from the Al-Anon Forum are also on sale at both the headquarters hotels and also here at Convention Hall. And as a final announcement, I would like to ask that all those who will be participating in the unity ceremony tomorrow night, please come onto the stage up here immediately following the closing of this meeting.
We've received a great many telegrams. Our schedule is much too tight to permit me to read all these messages to you, so I have selected just one which will have to symbolize all the others. This telegram reads as follows. Congratulations to the thousands of AA's gathered at Miami on the occasion of the 35th anniversary of the founding of the AA Fellowship. On behalf of the Post Office Department, I particularly want to express our thanks for the cooperation willingly given by the many local AA groups to our program for alcoholic recovery being installed in post offices nationwide.
Without this cooperation, our efforts to assist employees with a drinking problem could not succeed. Wynton M. Blount, Postmaster General. Now at this time, it gives me a great deal of pleasure to call on the Vice Mayor of Miami Beach, the Honorable Leonard Weinstein, who will welcome us to this city. Thank you very much, Mr. Bob Hitchens. As Vice Mayor of the City of Miami Beach, it's a genuine pleasure for me to officially welcome the 35th anniversary International Convention of Alcoholics Anonymous.
We are proud that you have chosen our city for this momentous gathering, and I am sure all of you will enjoy our beautiful flowers, our God-given sunshine, and all of our other natural and man-made attractions. Your presence here underlines again the right of Miami Beach to lay claim to being the convention capital of the world. It is fitting and proper, too, that you men and women have chosen this Independence Day weekend for your international convention.
Every single member of Alcoholics Anonymous has proclaimed his or her personal independence simply by the taking of the Twelve Steps. We all know that there is really nothing new in those Twelve Steps. They are simply a slightly different way of saying what all of us have known all of our lives. They are a restatement of basic principles as old as mankind itself. The fantastic growth of Alcoholics Anonymous into a worldwide organization in just 35 years is a development at which the entire world marvels.
It's that kind of non-organized organization that we politicians dream about.
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As Vice Mayor of Miami Beach, again, let me say welcome to all of you, to tell you how pleased we are that you have honored our city with a 35th anniversary gathering. We hope that you will love Miami Beach as much as we do, and we hope that you will return again and again to enjoy our beaches, our hospitality, and our sunshine. On behalf of our city council and all of our citizens, I would like to present to the Chairman of the Board of Trustees, Dr. John Norris, a key to our city and a courtesy card.
And, Dr. Norris, before I do, you know, it's also coincidental that this convention, this anniversary of yours, coincides almost with our Miss Universe contest which we have here every year. And as you know, we have come to this Miss Universe contest, the most beautiful women in the world. Every year, this pageant takes place. It starts during this week, and I believe the finals are next week. Now, normally, the mayor of our city presents the keys to our city.
It just so happens, ladies and gentlemen, that I'm the only bachelor on our city council. Last year, I felt that it was time for me to assert myself. The mayor wouldn't listen, and I tripped him one day to make sure that he would not be available for the Miss Universe contest. And I gave out 82 keys to the city to 82 of the most beautiful women in the world. Of course, what I did, I made these 82 keys so that they all fit my front door.
Dr. Norris, I want to assure you that this one doesn't fit my front door. This will open, Dr. Norris, the keys to the hearts of the city, of every citizen of Miami Beach. We welcome you. We appreciate your being here. It's my privilege on the part of all of the members of Alcoholics Anonymous worldwide, and those who are here, to accept this key to the city of Miami Beach. Thank you, Doc. Thank you, ladies and gentlemen.
The man who is going to speak to us next is very appropriately, since this meeting is being held in the state of Florida, the first Florida AA, the first delegate to the General Service Conference from Florida, and the first trustee from the southeastern region, Tom Sharp. Thank you, Bob. And as he said, my name is Tom Sharp, and I'm an alcoholic. Hi, folks. You know, this is a place for a pro. It's no place for a neophyte.
But I let him invigile me into getting up here for a few minutes, so I hope you'll bear with me. You know, I remember back in about 1942, I think it was, I was in Washington, D.C. on business, and we heard they were going to have an AA dinner. I'm telling you this to show you what a great prognosticator and prophet I am. And we got tickets and went to this dinner, and they had a great program. And they had a great program. Bill and Marty were on it, and about four others. I don't know how we got out there before daylight, but I think we did.
[00:15:12]
And the Washington group had gone around and had gotten them from Philadelphia and all the surrounding AA groups so they could make a respectable showing. And when this dinner was over, I told my wife, babe, I said, you take a good look here because I don't think you'll ever see this many Alcoholics Anonymous members under one roof again. There was a hundred and twenty-five there. Look what we got tonight.
You can't hear? Can you hear now? No. I'm speaking pretty loud. I'll blast them over here, but evidently right over in this area you can hear all right back here, can't you? Yeah, okay. You know, the governor would probably criticize me for saying what I am next, but Alcoholics Anonymous was brought to Florida from California. But we do have one redeeming feature. The gentleman, the naval officer that brought it over here, was originally from Mississippi.
So we can stay in the South on one count. And another thing about the early starting, I think, of the movement here was the part that our non-alcoholic friends played. Because his wife was a non-alcoholic, and she contacted a medical doctor who had treated me on many occasions, and he was a non-alcoholic. And he got in touch with my wife, who is also a non-alcoholic, and some way they enviggled me to go out and meet this gentleman.
And I liked what I heard then in the latter part of 1940, and I still like what I hear of Alcoholics Anonymous today. And there were some more good things that came along about that time. One was Jack Alexander's article in the Saturday Evening Post, which came out shortly after we had started in Florida. And I, who was so trifling and had taken so much from the world, was the only registered member in New York at that time, so I got all the calls.
And can you imagine not staying pretty busy after an article like that Saturday Evening Post article came out? They sent me a request to visit people as far down as Miami, and I didn't have a dime to get across the St. John's River, let alone to Miami. But we did, and we had a few in the group by that time, and we got started, and we tried to help alcoholics around us. And we started groups in many places, and it still goes on today.
And I think I'd not be quite right if I didn't see how much the visiting members of Alcoholics Anonymous… Evidently, there's something wrong with the speaker over there. You'd better move. Come on this side. I'll be through by then anyway. But the visiting members of Alcoholics Anonymous in those days were a great help to us. Dr. Bob stopped by and visited with us a couple of times on his vacations to Florida.
Bill and Lois came down in the early days to help solve some problems. Marty was another one that visited us way back. But even above those, I think just the average drunk that was traveling around the country would stop and visit with us and tell us what they were doing in their groups in these various places.
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That was what was the greatest help to us. You just can't imagine what it meant to have someone stop in and tell you what was going on and how they were working in this city or this state and what they were doing. And I've seen many of them at this convention, and it was just wonderful. Now, you heard Bob say some of these things that I was first in. Well, that was just a matter of luck. It could have fallen to anyone.
And it's really unimportant. But I think what is important is today, if anyone asks me a pertinent question that I can hold my head high and say, yes, I'm a member of Alcoholics Anonymous. And that does mean something. And I also like to say that I am still active in the affairs of my group and that I attend meetings regularly. I think that's an important thing. And I think it's important that I'm still willing to make calls and help the alcoholic who is less fortunate than I have been and who still does not know our way of life.
So to me, those are the three important things today. Not that I have a little time in this program. You know, this convention is going to stir up a lot of interest through its publicity, not only in Florida but worldwide. It's going to plow up a lot of drunks. And I just hope that we all leave here with a feeling of responsibility that we will do what we can to help those people, those drunks who still don't know what we do.
And who have still not been able to come into this way of life that we know so happily. But I didn't come here to lecture. I came here to welcome you to Florida. We appreciate you coming. We hope you enjoy yourselves. And from now on, just let's have fun. Thank you very much. Thank you, Tom. Can you people over there hear all right? I believe the management is aware of the problem and I'm sure that they are in the act right now of working on the speakers.
Just be patient and I think everything will be all right in a couple of minutes. The Vice Mayor spoke about having keys made. That may be, but to all of us, the most beautiful woman in the world is Lois, the First Lady of Alabama. Thank you all. Thank you all so very much. The symbol that I stand for is what you all are thinking is so beautiful.
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I thank you. Before this thrilling gathering here tonight, I want to express to all AAs my gratitude for the great happiness of the past 35 years. I include newcomers as well as long timers, for no one link in AA's chain is more vital than another. All carry the message. All share with another what they have found. It is this sharing that makes AA such a power for good. In these confused times, people all over the world, particularly young people, are seeking proof that good can overcome evil.
You are this proof. You have demonstrated that lives can be changed no matter to what depths they have fallen, that men and women can be re-motivated to become constructive, useful forces. This has been an inspiration and renewal of faith for many people throughout the world, but particularly for the families of AAs. These miracles have changed lives, I believe, have occurred because the principles of AA coincide with the highest principles known and teach us to step aside so a power greater than ourselves can act through us.
I'm especially grateful to AA for showing me and many other relatives of AAs the way to a better and a more useful life. The now large and spreading Al-Anon family groups are a byproduct of your recovery. In our Al-Anon fellowship, we follow your lead. We admit we are powerless over your alcoholic drinking. We acknowledge that we must keep our hands off your problems. Stop nagging and trying to manage your affairs as we often thought was necessary while you were drinking.
We take our own inventory, not yours, and admit the exact nature of our wrongs to God and to another human being. We make amends to those we have harmed. Through prayer and meditation, we seek to improve our conscious contact with God as we understand him. And we carry the message to others with a similar problem. In other words, we in Al-Anon are trying to live by the very same principles that have done so much for you.
This seems to have had favorable results on UAAs as well as on ourselves. For many homes have become serene, united, and joyous places to live. In the nearly 20 years that Al-Anon has had a World Service office, our groups have grown to over 5,000. And Al-Anon is practiced in over 50 countries throughout the world. Little by little, the Al-Anon field of service has broadened to take in relatives of alcoholics who have not yet reached AA.
More than half of our membership now belong in this category. Some of the alcoholics probably never will join AA, but quite a number start going to AA meetings after the family have begun practicing the program. The change in family life seems to arouse their curiosity. They go to AA to see what it is all about, and a goodly number stick. Al-Anon is very proud to have been given a part in this great convention.
And we all thank you AAs for this tremendous opportunity to spread to so many your message, which we have adopted as a way to make the world a better place.
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I want to tell you how sorry I am that Bill is not here tonight. And he has been hoping up until the very last minute that he could be with you. But he has been ill ever since he's been here. And he has, we both of us have been extremely, extremely lucky to have an AA doctor who is here with us tonight and who has been looking after him. And I'd like to introduce you all to Dr. Ed Boyle, who will give you a little report on Bill. Thank you.
My name is Ed B., and I'm an alcoholic. Hi, everybody. I hope to take less than 120 seconds or two minutes. I have two announcements and one request. Briefly, an announcement on Bill's status. Bill had been doing very well with a pulmonary condition up until about four or five days ago. And he thought it was just fatigue and maybe working hard for this convention because this is his 35th one and he's never missed one yet.
And he was really concerned about not being here tonight. He thought he had a little cold and I think he succeeded even in getting us to go along with that. We took him over this morning and had chest x-rays made and he has a virus, a pneumonitis, and I think he had a little cold. We took him over this morning and had chest x-rays made and he has a virus, a pneumonitis, and he should be well in a few days but he's not up to being here tonight and he sends his love in best regards.
And I'm sure he'll be all right in a few days. The sickest part of him right now is his wishing to be here with you. The second announcement concerns you. As a physician, until I joined AA, I'd seen on occasion a very rare miracle. And tonight, as a physician, I'm really honored to be here in the presence of 11,000 miracles. The disease that causes us all to be here tonight is a fatal one. Just think on that.
And it's by God's grace, in my personal opinion, that this meeting here tonight is possible and it's thrilling to be here with 11,000 miracles. So that's announcement number two. Now for a request. I know it might be out of order, but I think in my heart and personally in the heart of everyone here, that if these 11,000 living miracles would just take 60 seconds, a real minute by the clock, and close your eyes and picture Bill's face in your mind, and ask God as we understand him, our own personal God, to shower his grace upon Bill and heal him and make him well and whole and have him with us soon.
If we would all do this, I personally will be most grateful to you. The great physician knows no limits. Amen. I want to thank each and every one of you for asking our Heavenly Father's assistance. And I know, I know it will be heard. Thank you.
[00:35:09]
Thank you, Ed. Now I want to ask a man to come up here and speak to you who has looked after our interests unselfishly, devotedly, frequently to the neglect of his own interests for 17 years, the chairman of our Board of Trustees, Dr. Jack. Hi, everybody. My name is Dr. Jack Norris, as some of you have seen on the TV short. I've told some of you this story, but I'll tell all of you now because I've gotten a lot of fun out of it, and I think you will.
You know that short has four or five people who introduce themselves by their first name and say, I'm an alcoholic. They are, of course, not shown full face. And I come on full face and almost full length and say my name is Dr. John Norris. One morning after this had been shown in Rochester, one of the doctors in our group came into the office and said, I saw you on TV last night, Jack, and you looked pretty good.
I said, yes, Joe? He said, yeah, but I'm worried about you. I said, Joe, what's the matter? He said, you are the only one that wouldn't admit it. How grateful we all are, and don't we feel it. I thought after Toronto five years ago that we couldn't possibly come anywhere near it, and here we are again, sitting in Cloud 16. Cloud 9 is way down there in Cloud 16, and we know that even though we are in Cloud 16, our feet are on the ground too.
It's been a tremendous privilege for me as a physician to be a part of this miracle, and it's been a real thrill to me, and thrill isn't a big enough word, to have been accepted by you, and I'm sure that Mrs. Norris feels this with me, to be accepted as one of you. I realized this with real gratitude a few years ago at the General Service Conference when I was made an honorary alcoholic. And I really felt the other day that I had really arrived when on the list of instructions that they got together for me at the office, I was listed among the alcoholic trustees.
But I like it that way. One of the great privileges over the years as a member of your board and as chairman is to realize that our second tradition is a working principle, that we on the board, and I as your chairman, I hope, are trusted servants. Certainly those people whom you have elected from your areas to serve as trustees have been dedicated, capable, foreseeing, wonderful people. And it's been a real privilege for me to come to know them, to work with them,
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and to feel that insofar as we know how, we are serving you with all of the honesty, with all of the wisdom that God can give us as a part of the group conscience. And it's been a tremendous experience to see the group conscience at work and to see those times when we have gotten personalities involved, when we have as individuals begun to identify ourselves with our opinions to the point where anybody questioning that was making a personal attack.
And when this situation existed, to have somebody get up and say, it's time for us to be quiet for a minute and listen for the group conscience, and to see the group conscience come out with the right answer. And it's my privilege at this time to ask to stand up the trustees, your trustees, who are with me here on the platform. I will ask them to stand and remain standing as their names are called, and I will ask you to withhold applause until they're all up.
It would take too long if we did it individually. Andy Anderson from Michigan. Eric Bergman from the state of Washington. Bill Coogan, the one in red, from Massachusetts. Travis Dancy, who was brought to us by Dave Bancroft, who many of you from north of the border know. One of the non-alcoholics, a psychiatrist who called Dave his most successful failure. Raleigh Davidson comes to us from the city of Quebec.
Don Powell from Nebraska. Tom Hires, our most recently elected general service trustee from Alabama. Austin McCormick. I can't take the time to tell you all how much Austin McCormick has meant to us. He's one of nature's noblemen, whom even the best of us have to look up to. Arthur Miles, who is our new treasurer, recently joined us. I'm not going to say that he's taking Archie Roosevelt's place. He couldn't.
But he's doing Archie Roosevelt's job. Unfortunately, we couldn't persuade Archie to be with us. Steve Owen from New York City, one of our general service trustees who is close enough to the office to be always available. Bob Pearson from Connecticut, who's in and out of the office often and giving us great service. Catherine Prince, our woman trustee from the Middle West. John Ray from north of the border in Saskatchewan.
James Riley, the man in white, from Louisiana. Bernard, I believe, isn't here. I'm sorry he isn't, but you'll see him shortly. Someone who has been on the board longer than I, who has been one of the architects. Vincent Dole. I was surprised to hear him say this afternoon as he chaired one of the sessions that he'd been with us five years. Time goes so fast. John Lear, whom you saw just a few minutes ago.
That's the list as I have it. I hope I haven't forgotten anybody. I hope I haven't forgotten anybody. Oh, I'm sorry.
[00:45:07]
I did miss one. I picked the wrong list. And I am embarrassed. This is Bayard Pope, who has been chairman of our Public Information Committee, has done so much for us in helping us to learn how to not be so anonymous that it was difficult for people to find us. I've checked my other list, and if both of them are wrong, then my face is awful red. But that wouldn't be the first time. Thanks ever so much for being here.
Thanks ever so much for being you. It's been a wonderful conference so far. It'll be better. Thanks a lot. Thank you.