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Source: 1985 Montreal International Convention – Unknown Speaker – PUBLIC INFORMATION WORKSHOP – RS 06312.mp3 File: 1985-montreal-international-convention-unknown-speaker-public-information-workshop-rs-06312.mp3 Duration: 01:29:20
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Hi, and this is the workshop, Anonymity at the Public Level. And if you were sitting in here just a little while ago, where we were really discussing the topic of anonymity, I think some people are still keyed up from it. I hadn't realized we were going to be end-on-end in here. Okay. I'd like to open this meeting with a moment of silence and gratitude for the AA recoveries of the past 50 years, followed by the serenity prayer.
God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference. There may be some here who are not familiar with our tradition of personal anonymity at the public level. Our public relations policy is based on attraction rather than promotion. We need to always maintain personal anonymity at the level of press, radio, TV, and films.
Thus, we respectfully ask that no AA speaker, or indeed any AA member, be identified by full name or photograph in published or broadcast reports of our meeting. The assurance of anonymity is essential in our effort to help other problem drinkers who may wish to share our recovery program with us, and our tradition of anonymity reminds us that AA principles come before personalities. Also, there's another little note here for large rooms.
There aren't too many people in here, but I'm going to read it anyway. In accordance with the Municipal By-law, the Security Service of the Polydey Congress de Montreal would like to draw your attention to the evacuation procedures for this hall. Staircases marked with the word sortie are located at the end of the corridors outside each conference hall. And as I said, I'm Lila, and I'm an alcoholic, and I serve you.
I serve the fellowship as the staff member on the public information assignment. If you were here a little earlier, you probably heard someone at the microphone say that he got a letter. Well, that's part of my assignment is to make sure that when there are anonymity breaks that a letter goes to the delegate. We don't usually write directly to the member whose anonymity has been broken. To give you a little more of a view of my association with anonymity breaks, if you want to call it that, yesterday at the PI workshop I shared at great length about the clippings that come to the PI desk.
Across the PI desk every month we will receive at least 700 newspaper clippings from a clipping service. Now years ago when Bill was so excited with anything at the level of press, they would cut out anything that mentioned AA, and they're still doing it. So that's why we get so many of them. My job is to sift through and sort through and put a stack over here where it looks like a letter we might want to send to the newspaper, thanking them for their wonderful support.
Or it might be a letter to a delegate telling them, here's an article where your PI committee has really done wonderful work, and we just want to send our thanks. And then the pile that I don't really care for so much, but someone has to do this job of carrying our message of what our traditions are about, are the anonymity breaks. One stack says celebs on it, and the other is just anons. And this is the way they come to me.
I read through these, and in most cases you have a pretty good idea, and this is just my own personal viewpoint, that the AA members didn't break their anonymity, that it was probably done at the level of press. And I might receive a lot of letters about this, asking me, what are you doing up there in New York? And this is the type of letter I might get. And one of the things I always say as a staff member, sharing with the writer where we are with this and carrying the message of experience, is that the traditions were not written for outside entities.
They weren't written for the press. They were written for us. And each and every time, if you've gotten a letter from me about this, it's usually that it's up to each and every one of us. And some AA members are very upset, so as AA members and as private citizens,
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there have been some wonderful letters to the editor of newspapers about information.
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And I get those back in the clipping service. Another form of anonymity break that comes to the desk would be, we recently have gotten a lot of TV clips. Now that's just the script that comes from a TV show somewhere in the U.S. or Canada. We got about 40 a week and a half ago, and of course that was because of the 50th anniversary. Out of those 40, to give you an idea, there was only one anonymity break, and the rest was wonderful, wonderful support of our fellowship.
So for the most part, we try to be very positive when we're dealing with the press. I rarely would write finding fault. Usually it's to thank them for the wonderful support that they're giving us. I am going to stop talking now and get on with our speakers. We have three wonderful speakers. I just can't say enough about any of them. The one that's going to be speaking first has done a lot of work with public information, and I met this lady when she served as a delegate from Nevada.
And with that, I'm going to give you Ruth J. Applause Thank you, Lila. I'm Ruth Jagozinski, and I'm an alcoholic. Do most of you know that I broke my own anonymity? Do you know whether I broke the 11th tradition? It's interesting how people interpret that one. In an AA meeting or one where they have read the statement that Lila read, I have obviously not broken my anonymity at the level of press, radio, and film.
But there's a lot of people that don't understand the difference. Because I did serve as a delegate from the Nevada area, that was most of my experience with public information, although I did speak at a few public non-AA meetings, as they call them, in the Las Vegas area. But I did not serve on the panels or even on my local committee particularly. But as she said, the delegate is the honored one who gets the letters about the anonymity breaks in their area, and it's their choice as how to handle them.
Nevada is a large state. The northern half, which is Reno and whatever, is 450 miles away from Las Vegas. And I was very lucky. The breaks I got when I was serving as delegate all came from the northern part of the state, and I know how to delegate very well. And I sent them on to the area chairman in the northern part and said, Handle this for me. Anyway, I like being asked to share some things. Most of these are going to be my own thoughts.
Some will be some things that I know that happened in our area or in other areas, and some will be my own opinions. I don't know why. Why couldn't we have? They asked me to pose some questions to you afterwards so you can share. What a perfect way for fame and fortune and personal recognition. Those of us that have are recovered alcoholics and that have done something with our lives, and hopefully most of us have done more than just sober up.
Why not publicize it? Why not shout it from the hilltop with full faces and full names? And why not encourage that? There are many, many reasons. Obviously the biggest one for our program, I believe, is a spiritual one. It would not only injure the individual, it would injure the organization. Although we're so big now, I doubt if even 10% of us got up and started being very public, I think the other 90% would quickly have their heel in our throat and end it rather quickly.
But certainly, if you're like me, you have little voices in your head that sometimes attack you and sometimes support you, and when they attack you, or at least mine, when they do that, they say, you have the answer to this. You can tell the people. If you can speak for AA, at least in your area, you know what's going on. And it can be very tempting sometimes, when you're in those positions, to try and do some of those things.
And why not? We've all heard it here. If you were at any of the around-the-world sharing, or shared with any of the delegates and the people that are here from other countries,
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our program is a special thing, and it carries almost with it, I don't want to really call it a democratic program, but there is a certain amount of freedom that goes with it that there are other parts of the world that don't enjoy, such as those of us that live in the United States and Canada certainly do. And you've heard people allude to the fact that maybe AA could be the answer to all the world's problems.
If that is so, why are we sitting here silently and anonymously and not saying so publicly? My own personal opinion is that would be a good way to kill it, if in fact that's true, and I don't know that that's true. But that would be a good way to end it very quickly, because certainly it is a grassroots organization, and for anybody to assume that they were the star on the top of the tree would soon topple it, and it must grow from down below and spread its tentacles and whatever at that level first and build itself a good foundation.
Certainly we're all tempted at one point or another to speak up to correct somebody who has an inaccurate view of AA. Many of these articles that Lila was talking about, if they've been in your local papers, you've probably seen somebody misquoted something that was said about AA that wasn't quite right, or you didn't agree with it, I didn't agree with it, and you can go and straighten them out right away.
Amazingly enough, one of the things I have learned is that lots of things take care of themselves without my fixing them, and that other people do learn at their own rate. And because Joe Smith down the street here doesn't give what I believe is the correct view of AA and what it is and what it isn't, I am not a self-appointed policeman to rush in and correct him. Very often he was just misquoted, it wasn't him at all, as Lila said.
Bill W., if you've read AA Comes of Age, was sorely tempted, and in fact did, in the very early beginnings, break his own anonymity and was called back by other members then. So it's not something that's brand new just because we're big and we have now some famous faces and some famous names around. It has always been with us. There is a question, and as the tradition, or as the anonymity statement was read this time, you'll see that television has been added to it.
If you want to spark a little controversy in your area or you need a subject to discuss, bring up Tradition 11 and whether we need to add TV to that one. That's always good for about an hour's worth of discussion among AA members. We need it, we don't need it. Think about it both ways. Whichever side you're on, if things are dull, bring it up. It's guaranteed to bring some conversation. How about the videotapes? Now there's another one.
You get tired of the other, try videotapes. But it's only going to be used in the fellowship. It's only going to be used in this recovery house. It's only going to be used at our area assembly. How do you know? Do you have a chain on it and it's never going to get out? Full faces really are not the story. The message is what comes from the heart and it can be understood with the back of somebody's head just as well as with the front of their face, no matter which you want to put them on.
In spite of the best intentions, in spite of knowing when you're breaking it and when you're not, things will happen beyond your control. And as Lila pointed out, the anonymity letter that goes out to the press is just really a reminder for them. It is not up to them to keep our traditions. It is up to us to keep them. And once a story gets on a wire service and it has identified somebody by full name as a member of Alcoholics Anonymous, that's in every file drawer of anybody that's with API or United Press.
It's in their file drawer. And if another story about this person comes along and they pull in their file drawer, it's there already in thousands of them. And that's why we see some repeated and repeated in spite of the fact that people say, but we told them. There is really no control on that. And I feel sorry for the individual. I feel in that kind of case it probably hurts the individual far more than it injures the organization when it continues.
In our area, the instance that I like the best is one of our past delegates who is certainly very knowledgeable about how you break it, your anonymity, and how you don't break it. And he was asked to be interviewed for a local TV show. And he was very… for a local TV show and he was very antsy about that because he, although he knew that
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they had to black his face out or shadow it or show the back of his head, he still was nervous about it because it isn't done that frequently in our area and we just don't have that big a population to have that many requests. So he was assured by the reporter that he would be in the shadows, which in fact he certainly was, and it was going to run on the 6 o'clock and the 11 o'clock local news and because in a way of introducing himself, he gave the reporter his full name and a little bit of his history or whatever and he told me he could not be identified by full face on the television.
Well, he certainly wasn't identified by full face on the television, however, underneath this shadowed figure, you guessed it, was his full name. Now, it was wonderful, he didn't think it was wonderful, I thought it was wonderful and he got lots of calls after the 6 o'clock news and that was pulled for the 11 o'clock, but that's an example of the misunderstanding and here was a person who certainly understood how it should be and shouldn't be and just a misunderstanding of the press.
Those of us that knew him, whether they gave us any name at all, would have recognized his voice, but the vast majority of people living or visiting in the Las Vegas area could have cared less who Dick was and never have known him. I think sometimes we get very myopic and we think everybody knows us and if it's broken or if somebody sees me on television for 10 seconds at a general gathering, the whole city will know.
I don't know about your area, but in my area, 90% of the city could care less and they might remember it if they see you the very next day and that would be the end of it. I have done some talk shows on television that had nothing to do with AA and I can tell you that the whole city does not watch you when you are on television. Little ego we have left over there, everybody's going to see me. And also, outside your region or outside your area or outside your city, how many people are really going to know this person if it's a local member rather than one of our national well-known personalities?
Very few people, again. I have a friend who says when things happen that are not planned or are uncomfortable, in a hundred years how important will it be? And I like to think of that sometimes when people get all excited, want to rush out and fix something, straighten out that report, call up the paper, write a letter, fire it off to New York to add to Lila's pile of 700, after this week, wait until you see what's on your desk.
Oh, it's already started, okay. Because they have to fix it right away. And I certainly was guilty of that in at least my early years where I knew who was doing it wrong and who was doing it right. And there was no gray area, it was black and white, period, amen, and they should know better. Fortunately for me, one of the things I have learned is that there are some gray areas and everybody does not understand it completely.
And in spite of what your public information committee does, and I heartily believe your public information committee should be informing the fellowship as much as the general public as to what's going on and what is a correct way to get out public information about Alcoholics Anonymous. We are not a secret organization, we are only anonymous, and if people don't know who we are and where we are by some kinds of examples, we certainly would not have experienced the kind of growth that we have now.
So there is a reason for attraction, promotion, that's another good one if you want something for discussion in your area, as to which is which. I think it is dangerous for the individual, and perhaps for the area too, to ask somebody with less than one to two years' sobriety to talk at a media level, at a public meeting where the majority of the people are going to be non-AA members, because I think unless they have been brought up unusually well with the traditions, or a very strong service sponsor, or even recovery sponsor, there is a great chance for misunderstandings, and people will jump on this enthusiastic member and trample them into the dust, when really, wasn't it my fault for asking somebody without the proper background to do this kind of media thing.
I think those of us who may be in positions to suggest names, think that the person have a good enough and solid enough background so that you don't put them in jeopardy, much
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less have them say something that you might not really want to hear at the public level about our fellowship. There are so many sides to anonymity at the public level, whether it is your face, whether it is writing an article and using your full name, whether it is recording, whether it is a video tape, and how other people do it. In the Nevada area, of course with California right next to us, one of the most intense areas for AA membership, probably between 25,000 and 30,000 in California now, AA members, I mean, not just people, there are bound to be, you can't get that many people together without having some breaks.
And there are some very recognizable names in the areas, I'm sure there are in the Northeast and in other areas, but there is a heavy concentration in Southern California of well-known people who belong to the fellowship. Many of them do it very, very successfully for years before many of the others even know that they're in the fellowship. And then there are a few examples that maybe are not quite so successful, and some of us unfortunately have had to witness where it really was hard on the individual to pump them up because you knew that name and you wanted to use them in this and use them in that because they could be so helpful.
And I think we as individual AA members need to watch out, and I feel very responsible when I see a name or a face, and I'm thinking of two particular comedians in the Western part of the country that I've seen this happen to, that certainly faltered after the great suggestion of the AA fellowship that because they were who they were, they could do more for us. And I think we can do just as much for ourselves, and you may never have heard of or seen Ruth Jagozinski, and I may not even know your names out there, but I feel confident that if you are an AA member and you feel about the fellowship like I do about it, and it has done for you what it has done for me, that you can carry the message of what Alcoholics Anonymous can do for a person who suffers from our disease just as well as somebody with a recognizable face and a recognizable voice, and sometimes a lot better. So if you haven't tried it, please do, because certainly if you're here, you wanted to know what a break is or what it isn't, or you already know. So if you already know, then you're the people that should be doing it.
Thank you, Ruth. As Ruth was talking, I was recalling, as you know, we have rotation every two years to keep us all green and humble, and I'm about to rotate out of the PI assignment, but I remember when I first came on the assignment, my first real confrontation with this, with this topic, where I really had to be on my toes and serve the fellowship and carry this message about anonymity. At that time, a woman by the name of Betsy Anderson, who was going to be a speaker on our panel but couldn't come, was working on an alcoholism show for the Nova series. When I came on board, if I can remember the story straight, there were pictures that had been taken from Markings on a Journey. Now, many of you know that Markings on a Journey is not for public, it's for within the fellowship, because there are a couple of shots in that particular film strip which are, have other faces in them, and they might well have passed on over to the big meeting in the sky, but we don't know that for sure, and we don't have permission from their families. So this one particular shot, which Betsy sent back, along with the script, because this is part of our request, is that whatever they use, would you please send the script and let me know what picture you're going to use in this show. There was a picture of Bill Wilson with his glasses on top of his head.
It's a wonderful picture that you will see in Markings on a Journey, but behind him are several faces, and I said, well, I'm really sorry, Betsy, I don't care when you have to have, what your deadline is, you're going to have to take this frame out of there. This is footage that you can't have, and we won't sign a release on this. She said, well, that's too bad, because it's too late. I said, no, it isn't too late. And she said, well, I want to talk to your boss. And I said, I said, you know, Betsy, that's going to take a little time, you'll have to wait until April. She said, what do you mean? And I said, well, my boss is a loving God, as he expresses himself through the group conscience of each group throughout the 91 areas of the U.S. and Canada. And so Betsy did come in and visit, and we
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got the little, we got the frame taken out, and it was a wonderful series that she did. But to give you an idea, that's part of what the job is. I'm going to stop talking now, and I am going to introduce to you a real expert in the field of public information, and this is a past trustee, Walter M., who served on the Public Information Committee. Take a drink with me. Yeah, it's more comfortable with a drink in your hand.
Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. My name is Walter Murphy, and I'm an alcoholic. And I'm just delighted and honored to be here. And I understand that you had a very lively discussion preceding this one on a subject similar to ours. As Ruth suggested, you know, if you really want to get a nice controversy stirring in your area, bring up this subject of anonymity on the level of press, radio, and TV. It has been going on from the beginning of AA's emergence as a national organization, a national force in this country and throughout the world. I think we should bear in mind that the media has played a crucial role in our growth. The Saturday Evening Post article by Jack Alexander has been recorded in our history as the turning point in our growth. So many people came forward for help following the publication of that article. Last night at the big meeting, the woman who is believed to have the longest sobriety in AA, just women, men have more sobriety, said she read an article in Liberty Magazine. And so the media is very important. The media, I think, should be regarded as our friends. Bill wrote many years ago a great article for the grapevine called Be Friendly With Our Friends. I think, if I may, and these are my thoughts obviously, I think that perhaps we are sometimes too sensitive about this issue with the press.
And by that I mean we kind of have a tendency to jump all over them if they identify a person as a member of AA. When in fact I think they do it, I believe they do it, because they, acting from ignorance, think they're helping the fellowship. I know we talked, Ruth referred to some people who are well known who have become involved in public appearances on television and in the newspapers and so forth. And I know of two cases where the recovered alcoholic agreed to the interviews, they were famous people, with the understanding that the author not ask how they got sober. And it was agreed. And then in the writing, that was forgotten.
And so these celebrities were identified as members of Alcoholics Anonymous, and tons of mail followed. And they were accused of all kinds of things. So I think the one thing I tried to do when I was chairing the PI committee was to kind of take it easy on the press. We at one time had a terrible letter that went to the press when a clipping came in saying that John Jones, a member of Alcoholics Anonymous from Topeka, Kansas, did a nasty about it. And then we learned that these people were not doing it intentionally. So this is something I think that, you know, taking Bill's mind, be front and center.
You know, taking Bill's line, be friendly with our friends. I also believe, and I know that this borders on heresy, I also believe, I know from my experience, that when we see a person identified in the media as a recovered alcoholic, we assume that that person is a
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member of AA. We jump to the conclusion. Now, the facts are that people recover in other ways. I would not, you know, for myself, I would not choose one of these other ways, but people do recover other ways. I forget what the statistics are, but at one point we said that I think 50% of the people who came to AA recovered in the program. 25% came back the second time and made it, and 25% we didn't know about. Don't hold me to those statistics.
But the point I'm trying to make is that there are some recoveries in AA, some recoveries from alcoholism without AA. And again, I underline that I do not encourage that, and I certainly am glad that I was blessed with this program. But we do, I think, frequently jump to the conclusion that a person, that all recovered alcoholics are members of AA, and that, in fact, is not true. The media, and especially television, is the most potent 12-step instrument available to us. How many of you saw the recent piece about AA on the 7 o'clock NBC network news?
Tom Brokaw did it, and I thought it was just sensational. And again, based, I sound like a know-it-all, a know-it-all I don't mean to be, but based on my experience with the media, I can tell you that people may be attending our international five years from now because they saw that show. I have all my life worked in the media. It's where I learned to drink. I was in the PR end of it, but starting out with a network, and in those days, the way you got something in the magazines or newspapers about your stars was by taking people out and whining and dining with them.
I really do think that that brought on my alcoholism because I drank for a number of years prior to that without, well, in the Army, for example, I drank without any difficulty at all. So the media is close to me. I recognize the media for what it is. They make mistakes, but by and large, they try to do the right thing. I've handled PR for the National Council on Alcoholism. I am now associated with the Christopher D. Smithers Foundation, which many of you know has been really, for so many years, the principal private funding sources for affiliates of NCA and research and so forth.
So my experience with alcoholism and the media has been long. I don't know if it's been good, but it's been long. And from this, again, has emerged, number one, a respect for the AA traditions. I am not quarreling with the AA traditions, God knows. I think that many of us are more cautious perhaps than we need be, and that's okay. Whatever makes you comfortable is okay. The group conscience is the final authority. But personally, and again, this is my personal view, I find it difficult within an AA group, and I see it becoming more and more current where people get up and just use, say, my name is Walter M. rather than Walter Murphy.
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Everyone knew me when I was a drunk. One example, we had a group, Debbie and I, did I break her anonymity there? I probably did. I'm not telling you Debbie who. But we belonged to a group, and it was a wonderful group. We started it up where we had a country home out north of New York City, and there was no group when we moved to this community, so what do you do? You start one. And just a lovely lady was, and there they were, now this is not, I'm not talking about the dark ages. This was within the last 15 years or so. There was no group in this little town.
And somehow, you know, if you put a notice in the paper, they come forth, and boy, these people came in and they were so anonymous, they practically wore masks over their faces. And we were considered kind of crazy, I guess, because we said my name is Walter Murphy, how are you, good to see you, and so forth. Be careful what you say. And I didn't care. But at any rate, the lady who was the secretary did not show up for a number of weeks. And finally she did, and she was furious at the group.
She had experienced a very serious illness and almost died, and not one member of the group sent a card or made a telephone call. And do you know why? They didn't know her last name. We worried to death about this woman, but they didn't know her last name. Now, again, that's the way groups choose to do it, and individuals choose to do it fine. And this wonderful little paper that was distributed with the registration kit, there is one on the subject of anonymity.
It says, even within a fellowship, every member's name and story needs to be confidential, if the member so wishes it. So, there is some flexibility if you elect to reveal your last name. But I'm wondering a little bit from the subject. Of course, when you appear in the media as a member of Alcoholics Anonymous, there's no question. But let me leave you with a question, which perhaps we can come back to. Is it okay for a recovered alcoholic to appear in the media as a recovered alcoholic, not as an AA member, and give the full name?
Let's think about that, and maybe if you so decide, we can talk about it later. Thank you very much. Thank you, Walter. Walter mentioned the special segment on NBC News. It was my pleasure to have the opportunity to work with the producer of this, and once again, it was the same thing about anonymity. I don't ever let up. The first thing that he wanted to do with this special segment was to pull in Hill Street Blues. The producers wanted to pull in the celebrities right away.
Well, I got to know, the man's name was Peter Jeffrey. He's a very talented man, and if you saw the segment, you know it took a lot of talent to put that together. But it took four weeks, and as we worked on this, he would call me from time to time, and he was not an AA member. When they went to Akron to shoot the gatehouse and some of the historical landmarks, evidently they had a pretty rough weekend, and he called me and he said, I've really had it with this. He said, I've never done such an excruciating package of work.
He said, we got to Akron, it was raining, it was the weekend of the bad storms in the East Central States, and he said, and after all of that, it took 12 hours to get home, and he said, I wanted you to know, the only reason I called you today was to tell you that I have learned the serenity prayer. He says, I got back from Akron, and we went in there to cut the film, and he said, most of the film we had was bad film from the beginning. So, later on with Peter, I taught him something, and it goes like K-I-S-S, and that was the day that he called me, and he said, it was the Friday before, and they were going to show it on Monday. He says, I don't know what I'm going to do, but they've decided they're going to show some celebrities.
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And I said, I tell you what to do, and that's when I taught him about Keep It Simple. I said, I tell you what to do, you tell your bosses in New York City that they're going to be minus one producer if they do. So, when Tom Brokaw came on and had his little blurb about anonymity, it was a real thrill for me. I'm going to now ask for our third speaker, a person who is a real crackerjack P.I. person from the northern coastal area, one of my favorite areas, and I guess because they're so wonderful about letting GSO know about what's going on in the area.
They've done some wonderful projects there, and with that I'm going to give you Diane Olson. My name is Diane Olson, and I'm an alcoholic. Hi everyone. My home group is the basic big book group that meets every Friday night at 8 o'clock in Cupertino, California. I say that because there are a lot of home folk here, and I'm really thrilled to have them with me. I've been asked to share with you this afternoon my ideas concerning anonymity at the public level. I would first like to thank Lila for her loving invitation. It was one of the highlights of the conference for me to be in her office and to receive such a thrilling invitation to participate in this, our 50th anniversary convention.
I had wanted to try to approach this subject a little differently knowing my two cohorts up here, and I'm kind of excited. I think I've succeeded. My first thought was to go through our literature and find out exactly what has been written about this very vital principle that is so tremendously important to the survival and continued well-being of our fellowship. And so I researched a lot of our conference-approved literature, namely, As Bill Sees It, to find out what he wrote in personal correspondence, In the Great Vine, to find out what he wrote in his talks there, and also in the talks that they've reprinted in the Great Vine that he's given.
I also used our big book, of course, and our 12 Steps and our 12 Traditions, A.A. Comes of Age, and passed it on. And I provided myself, I think, with a fabulous wealth of material related to the topic here this afternoon, and I'm really kind of excited about sharing it with you. After I've shared some of these quotes with you, then I would like to take a little time to tell you how I personally relate to what I consider to be this most spiritual of principles. First, the quotes from our literature.
We alcoholics are the biggest rationalizers in the whole world. Fortified with the excuse that we are doing great things for Alcoholics Anonymous, we can, through broken anonymity, resume our old and disastrous pursuit of personal power and prestige, public honors, and money, the same implacable urges that, when frustrated, once caused us to drink. In the Akron Cemetery, where Dr. Bob and Ann both lie, the simple stone says not a word about Alcoholics Anonymous. This final example of self-effacement is of more permanent worth to Alcoholics Anonymous than any great amount of public attention or any great monument.
AAs of worldly prominence believe that if they tell their public that they are an Alcoholics Anonymous, they will bring in many others. They therefore express the belief that our anonymity tradition is wrong, at least for them. They forget their principal aims of prestige and the achievement of worldly ambition during their drinking days. They do not realize that, by breaking their anonymity at the public level, they are unconsciously pursuing those old and perilous illusions once more.
They forget that the keeping of one's anonymity often means the sacrifice of one's desires for power, prestige, and money. They do not see that if these strivings became general in Alcoholics Anonymous, the course of our whole history would be changed, that we would be sowing the seeds of our own destruction as a society. Nothing matters more in the future welfare of Alcoholics Anonymous than the matter in which we AAs use the colossus of anonymity.
The manner in which we A.A.s use the colossus of modern communication, used unselfishly and well, it can produce results surpassing our present imagination. Should we handle this
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great instrument badly, we shall be shattered by the ego manifestations of our own people. Against this peril, A.A. members' anonymity before the general public is our shield and our buckler. We A.A.s frequently speak before semi-public gatherings as we wish to share with audiences that our own alcoholism is an illness that we no longer fear to discuss with anyone. If we venture beyond this limit, however, we shall lose the principle of anonymity forever. If every A.A. felt free to publish his or her name, picture, and story, we would soon be launched upon a vast orgy of personal publicity. Moved by the spirit of anonymity, we try to give up our natural desires for personal distinction as A.A. members. Filled with the spirit and the practice of anonymity, no shoal nor reef can wreck us. If we forget this principle, the lid to Pandora's box will be off. The spirits of money, power, and prestige will be loosed among us. The spiritual substance of anonymity is sacrifice. We give up personal desires for the common good. The unity, the effectiveness, and even the survival of Alcoholics Anonymous will always depend upon our continued willingness to give up personal ambitions and desires for common safety and welfare. Sacrifice means unity and survival for our entire fellowship. We make these sacrifices because we want to. Alcoholics Anonymous is a power greater than any of us. It must go on living or else countless, uncounted thousands of our kind will surely die. Anonymity, born out of self-sacrifice, is the greatest single protection that Alcoholics Anonymous can ever have. It is our greatest symbol of personal sacrifice, the spiritual key to our whole way of life. Our really great hope lies in the fact that our total experience as Alcoholics and as members of Alcoholics Anonymous has taught us the immense power for self-destruction that the forces of personal power and prestige, public honors, and monies can have. The hard-won lessons of broken anonymity at the public level have made us entirely ready to undertake every personal sacrifice necessary for the preservation of our treasured fellowship. This is why we see anonymity at the general public level as our chief protection against ourselves, the guardian of all our traditions, and the greatest symbol of self-sacrifice that we know. We now fully realize that 100% personal anonymity before the public is just as vital to the life of Alcoholics Anonymous as 100% sobriety is to the life of each and every member. This is not the counsel of fear.
It is the prudent voice of long experience. When it comes to survival for Alcoholics Anonymous, nothing short of our very best will be good enough. We want to maintain 100% anonymity for still another potent reason, one often overlooked. Instead of securing us more publicity, repeated self-serving anonymity breaks could severely damage the wonderful relationship that we now enjoy with press and public alike. We could wind up with poor press and very little public confidence. For many years, news channels all over the world have showered Alcoholics Anonymous with enthusiastic publicity, a never-ending stream of it. Editors tell us why this is. They give us extra space and time because their confidence in Alcoholics Anonymous is firm. The very foundation of that high confidence is, they say, our continual insistence on personal anonymity at the press level. Never before have news outlets and public relations people heard of a society that refuses personally to advertise its leaders or members. To them, this strange and refreshing novelty has always been proof positive that Alcoholics Anonymous is on the square, that nobody has an angle. This, they tell us, is the prime reason for their great goodwill. This is why, in season and out, they continue to carry the AA message of recovery to the whole world. If through enough anonymity lapses, we finally cause the press, the public, and our alcoholic prospects themselves to wonder about our motives, we would surely lose this priceless asset and, along with it, countless
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prospective members. Alcoholics Anonymous would not then be getting more good publicity. It would be getting less and worse. The handwriting on the wall is abundantly clear. The deeper purpose of anonymity is actually to keep our crazy egos from running hog wild after money and public fame at AA's expense. The limelight was something that most alcoholics craved and yet had little tolerance for. To lose one's bid for the limelight could be as disastrous as to win it. Power driving is a potentially dangerous activity for an alcoholic.
The Eleventh Tradition entreats each member to avoid any kind of personal publicity or distinction which might link his name or her name with our society in general or the general public mind. Because we have had much practical experience with this vital principle, it is today the view of every thoughtful AA member that if over the years ahead we practice this anonymity absolutely, it will guarantee our effectiveness and unity by heavily restraining those to whom public honors and distinctions are but natural stepping stones to dominance and personal power. This tradition of personal anonymity and no honors at the public level is our protective shield. We dare not meet the power temptation naked.
The spiritual principle of anonymity for this alcoholic has been enormously important to my personal growth and sobriety. My earliest childhood memories tell me that I lived in the fantasy world where I enjoyed great power and prestige. I was always in the limelight in the fantasy world looking for greater and greater acclaim. As I grew older and I became more aware of the great heroines in our society, and as each one caught my attention, I imagined myself achieving great fame and instant recognition in her particular field of endeavor. It was all-encompassing. Ballet dancing, competitive swimming, news broadcasting, piano playing, horseback riding, opera, synchronized swimming, figure skating, just to mention a few. The same theme ran through all my fantasies, tremendous acclaim and great fame.
The white light shone on me wherever I went. In my mid-thirties, I was poured into a treatment center, a tongue-chewing, babbling idiot drunk. I was introduced to Alcoholics Anonymous, and after one brief three-months return to the street gutters, I came home to stay one day at a time. I became involved in service, thanks to my marvelous sponsor who led me by her enthusiastic example, and once again I discovered the limelight. I did not realize what was happening at the time. I do know, though, that I was loving every minute that I was in front of a meeting, secretarying or sharing or giving this report or making that announcement. Then one day my sponsor caught me in full glory, and it was inventory time. She asked me to inventory everything that I was into in Alcoholics Anonymous, especially examining my motives for doing each one. When I had finished writing and had shared everything with her, it was painfully clear to me that I still enjoyed the limelight much too much.
In the name of service, my ego had reared its ugly head and once again was looking for praise and recognition. Everything I had ever done in life had a hook in it or a string attached. I had never done anything for the simple joy of doing it, for the simple fun of it all. I had never been able to help God's kids do things that they needed to have done without looking for something in return. I had missed the true spiritual significance of life. That, created out of God's love, I was simply here to be a channel through which he could come forth into his creation. Through this inventory and with my sponsor's help, I discovered that what was important in service in Alcoholics Anonymous was that a job got done, not that I was the one doing it. To me, anonymity in Alcoholics Anonymous is love in service. It is the kind of love that demands no rewards and is the kind of service that has no price tag attached to it. It reminds me that I have something greater and stronger than my human personality to rely upon. Its principles of self-sacrifice and humility reflect eternal spiritual values. They remind me that my personal ambition has
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no place in Alcoholics Anonymous, that I am only part of a great whole, that the unity and welfare of our fellowship must come before my personal gain, that I must always give up my natural desire for personal distinction both among my fellow AA members and before the general public, and that any success I may be having at any given time is far more to God's credit than to mine. He is the one in charge, and he has all the power, and of myself I can do nothing. It is my great friend within me who does the work. Therefore, there is never any need whatsoever for me to advertise, neither at the public level nor within our fellowship, what by God's grace I am fortunate enough to be able to do. To me, anonymity means that I have been given a free gift, the gift of sobriety, and by God's grace alone, daily I experience the unqualified joy of being able to pass it on. Thank you very much, and God bless you. Thank you, Diane. Now, during the next 30 minutes, we'll open this for discussion and questions, and you line up at the mic if you wish to share.
I'm Mel B. I'm an alcoholic. I really had two questions or ideas I'd like to present to the panel. One time in the 1950s, the biggest anonymity break was a book by a well-known actress, I'll Cry Tomorrow. I remember voicing criticism of this, and then another A.A. member told me that in his opinion, this woman, by writing this book and breaking her anonymity, she had helped a lot of women come into the fellowship who otherwise wouldn't have come in, because it's very hard for women to come in even as late as the 1950s. Then more recently I talked over the telephone to Dr. Joseph Pirsch, and he mentioned Betty F., shall we say? In the previous meeting I heard some criticism of Betty F., her treatment center, but he felt that in his opinion she had done more for alcoholics than any person since Bill Wilson. So that's one question. This leaves you kind of confused about this whole thing. Here are these people breaking anonymity, and yet other people seeing that they do a great thing, or help people who otherwise wouldn't have been helped. Then the next thing is about writing or speaking where you say you're an alcoholic, and then you don't say you're an A.A., but you tell so much about it that, shit, what else could you be? There was a book in the 1950s written by a fellow who was a well-known magazine writer. He's dead now. His name was Jerry E. He wrote a book that was published by Harper's called Report to the Creator. He told about his recovery, and a whole chapter in the book described the fellowship that he belonged to. But he didn't say he was an A.A. Now at that time he worked at G.S.O., wrote articles for the Grapevine, was later employed by the Grapevine.
He had a falling out later on, but not over that. So he was in very good standing with G.S.O., but here really was a technical anonymity break, because if you say you're a recovered alcoholic, then you say you belong to a 12-step program, and you meet weekly, and all this crap, what the hell else are you but a member of A.A.? Why not just come out and say it? Those are the two things I want to present.
Okay. I am going to ask our panelists to each, if you'd like to share on it. Walter? Well, I'm Ruth, and I'm an alcoholic. I don't have an easy answer to the first question or problem you posed, that some people that are very public apparently do some good, but do we ever know what it costs them at a personal level, I wonder. As to the second one, I think we as A.A. members certainly know We, as AA members, certainly know what program and what support groups and whatever that they're talking about.
Again, I wonder how much of the non-AA or general public, how many of them automatically snap to the answer that we do that they're a member of AA.
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I think it's a very delicate balance, but I would rather see them say a little bit about a support group and that something helped them than to make the general public think that they did it totally by themselves with no outside help of any kind, no matter what it is. I personally know some recovered alcoholics who do not consider themselves AA members, in fact did not sober up in AA, they did in one treatment form or another, and have remained sober 5, 10, 15 years, apparently happy.
I mean, I can't judge their insides, but they seem to be comfortable in giving in return to society, but it is such a small percentage that even they don't recommend it to others, and I certainly don't. But there are some out there that do it in a different way. It's very difficult to answer both of those, but I think, again, as AA members we're being a little myopic when we can figure out really quickly that that person's a member of AA by maybe only one sentence, but I don't know that the 90% of the general public that doesn't know much about us jumps to that conclusion as fast as we do.
I was talking about a whole chapter. Well, yes, if they spell it out like that, but there's some that give a few hints, and you still know that they're an AA member. You do, and I do, but I don't think the general public jumps to it. I've asked some of the people that I work with, and they have no idea what the person is talking about. They think it's a church. Most of them think it's a religion that they're talking about.
Any other comments? No, I pretty much have the same comments as Ruth. Again, and I'm not trying to start an argument, but I've heard Betty Ford speak. I've never heard her say she was a member of Alcoholics Anonymous. That's right. That's what I was going to say. And I do know that Mrs. Ford has influenced a lot of people to come forward for treatment, and how they receive the treatment I don't know.
I mean recovery, how they achieve recovery. But that's what I meant earlier when I said that we sometimes jump to the conclusion that every recovered alcoholic is a member of Alcoholics Anonymous when, in fact, every recovered alcoholic is not. Thank you, Walter. I want to mention that if any of you saw the recent article in the Daily News, that article began in my office to give you an idea of what happens at the level of press because they don't have any rules that they have to follow that have to do with our anonymity.
We sat and talked about anonymity, and when the article came out, the writer wrote about the people who had broken their anonymity unknowing to him, but not in his power to change their decision, went ahead and put pictures in. Betty F. has never broken her anonymity. The press has broken it. And this happens very, very often. Hi, my name is Jack Maloney from Manhattan. I'm a recovering alcoholic. Hi, Jack.
And I say recovering because I get ticked when I hear somebody say recovered. So that's important to me in your question that nobody's recovered in this program, recovering. For this alcoholic, I believe that. My father went to the same treatment center I did and had the same counselor, and he does not use AA to stay sober. So there's an example for me. My question is, I'm an actor in Manhattan, and I'm involved in a theater piece about children of alcoholics.
It's called Legacy. It'll be produced, hopefully be produced in September or November of this year. And three of us in the piece are recovering, and the other four or five are children of alcoholics, of which I am a child of an alcoholic. And I'm like this as far as my anonymity in the future, as far as the piece itself. How do I protect myself from what this piece is going to bring about? What if it gets to a very prominent theater in New York?
Maybe you can give me some help on that as to how I can go about that. I'm Ruth, and I'm an alcoholic. Thank you. That was one thing that I meant to cover when I spoke.
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When I am asked to speak or share, I make sure in my own mind, first I ask the person, do they want me to speak as a recovered alcoholic or do they want me to speak as an AA member? And I think if you get that straight in your mind, which do you want to share, which level do you want to share at, that will tell you how to do it. If you want to share as an AA member, which certainly is far more spiritual and will not garner you the credit that maybe saying you're a recovered alcoholic and using your own name, but it's certainly safer, then you know that you will not be exposed publicly except maybe to those that you work with directly and know you.
This piece is evolving much like Chorus Line and other workshop pieces, and it's about my life. It's about my life growing up as a child of an alcoholic up and through my recovery. It can still be done either way. It can still be done either way, but you have to be sure in your mind which way, and then you answer questions differently, or if somebody's interviewing you, you say, Or by my choice to say that I went to AA.
Right. If you want to speak as an AA member at the public level, then you do it anonymously, without pictures and not using your last name. If you want to speak as a recovered alcoholic without mentioning you're a member of AA. But this piece will be on every night for eight shows a week. Do you know what I'm saying? And the public will come and see that. It's all right for me to release my, in the piece itself.
You mean as an actor? As an actor, in the piece itself, I'll be talking about my life. But if you're playing a part in there, is it already going to be explained that it's your life or that you're playing a part? I don't know. There's lots of non-alcoholics that have played alcoholic parts, and nobody has accused them of breaking their anonymity. So unless you somehow say it, they're not going to know whether you're just an actor filling a part.
But if I choose to, that is all right? Right. But you can act the part. You could hire some non-alcoholic to act the part. I doubt that. Not my life. No. But you can do it. There have been more than one request at the PI desk in the last couple of years from the very same kind of a question you just asked. And, Ruth, you're so right. It is up to you. But you must remember the position you're placing yourself in when you get into this.
You make a decision, you pay the price. My name's Jeff, and I'm an alcoholic. I'm from Cleveland. Hi, Jeff. I was sober a little less than three years when I was appointed chief of police of a major city. It's a little bit controversial since I wasn't a police officer. And I woke up in the morning and the papers had my drunk alarm because they'd done the homework on me. So what I want to share is I don't have a question.
I'm an alcoholic. I have a comment. It's my experience. It was very frightening to know how to deal with that, especially sober a little less than three years. But obviously I was a public alcoholic, and I was a public alcoholic with my first name since they couldn't figure out how to call me Jeff F. And if they had to call me Chief F, that might have given away something that we didn't want to give away.
My point was that I couldn't control the media. I could only control what I said. And what I said was I stopped drinking. Yeah, I used to be a drunk, and I stopped drinking, and I found a way to stop drinking. And if anybody wants to talk about it, feel free to give me a call while I have coffee sometime. I think that I agree with what Bill Wilson had written about it that we can really shave it close.
I mean, I can say I'm a recovering alcoholic who goes to meetings and works 12 steps, and then I'm breaking in on him, and I'm making myself an AA member. But my point was that the media did not respect what I said. They said, We know that you belong to a club. They'd done that research too. And we're going to use that because this is a big story. And I said, You can't use it. Are you ashamed of your membership?
I said, No. Well, aren't you proud of your membership? This is a reporter talking to me. No, no, I'm not proud. That's the wrong word, too. He said, Well, what is it? I said, I'm grateful. And we have a tradition called anonymity that protects that. He said, I don't understand. I said, Well, I don't understand particularly either. But that's the way it is. It took some alcoholism agencies and the National Council on Alcoholism to step in to prevent the media from using my name and my association with the club.
And then I started taking my own inventory about all the people,
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the celebrities that I'd taken their inventories, who got caught in the same position I did when the media did not respect what they were saying. So we can't control the media. All we can do is control the thoughts and the words that come out of our mouths and try to follow the GSO guidelines. Thank you for letting me talk. Thank you. Thank you. Could we, for the rest of the folks that are standing there, kind of limit ourselves to two to three minutes?
That way we could hear from everyone. Is that all right with you? Sure. My name is Royce Binge, and I'm an alcoholic from Brooklyn. I just wanted to thank everybody for focusing my attention on anonymity at the public level. And it's been interesting to hear it from the media point of view in particular. I have not encountered it on a media level. I have, on the public level, though, encountered anonymity through speaking at schools, accepting invitations to go and speak at various, mostly schools, but any time that there's a request for a speaker from Alcoholics Anonymous, more often than not it's from a teacher who has been teaching a class in addiction and needs a live alcoholic that the students can feel questions with.
And I appreciated Diana talking about the spiritual aspects of anonymity on the public level because I'm used to thinking of the spiritual aspects of personal anonymity. But on the public level, that is exactly how I've dealt with that classroom situation where you're talking to junior high or high school students who've asked the damnedest questions. They know you're from AA, of course, because that's how you got there.
And they can ask incredible questions. And the only way I've dealt with that over the last six or eight years is by turning inward and exploring the principles of the program and relying on a higher power to say what needs to be said. One of the most bothersome things that's come up in the last couple of years is that increasingly lead questions seem to come up about the effects of active alcoholism and how I respond to it in AA that would lead me to admit being a homosexual alcoholic in AA.
And I realize it's getting into another area and how to go ahead and feel those questions without associating AA in particular in non-alcoholics' minds with my own particular situation. And anonymity is a very far-ranging field to experience one's recovery in or for me to experience my recovery in. In particular, I'm happy about the spiritual emphasis this afternoon, and it helps me a lot. Thanks. Thank you.
Hi, I'm an alcoholic, and my problem is Vic McMayhill from St. Augustine. Hi, Vic. I wanted to share a little bit. I've only really been involved with interface with the press a couple of times in my days. I wanted to share a little of what went through my mind. The first thing is, like you have said, boy, the feeling of power coursing through me and saying, hey, me, hey, me, I can help these people.
They will send them to me and that AA and all. But the way it goes is like this. I have decided that the press has different standards in the world in general. And when something marvelous happens, as we have happened all the time in AA, it's got to be some people, some individuals, and they look for that. And of course, it says in the end of how it works, no human power, no human power could have relieved our alcoholism.
And that means all the human power in AA could not have done it to me, but God could and would if he were sought. So I take this position. By the way, I had a friend in the fellowship who used to say, I fix drunks, I fix drunks. Well, I can't use that. Well, I can't use that as to, you know, I don't feel that right, but I feel like a receptionist in the doctor's office, and I open the door, I try to carry the message, I don't even carry the message as part of my recovery or part of my service, I open the door, and I don't
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do any healing, I'm just the receptionist, if I can just keep remembering that, I'm alright at press level or wherever. Thank you. Hi Lila, my name is David, I'm an alcoholic, and I'm from Brooklyn, New York, and I have about 43 things to say about anonymity at the public level, but I won't, I'll let these people behind me say that, because it's one of my favorite topics, but I want to respond to something Walter said about this thing with the last names, and why I feel it's important for me to not use my last name. Now, I'm active in AA in Brooklyn, and people in my group know my last name, they know my phone number, if I get sick they'll know where to get me, I know their phone numbers, after the meeting I'll gladly give them my last name, but I remember when I was new, and it was just so important and so wonderful to me that they didn't care about my last name, my job, my background, where I live, anything, and I ask people to try to remember what that was like, now I don't care, but Lila, you'll appreciate this, at the Cobble Hill group on Montague Street, I used to go there, and I would walk around that block until I was sure no one had their eye on that church door, and I would zoom in, I don't have to do that anymore, but for the person that's very new, and it was like me, I think it's just very reassuring that if it's Alcoholics Anonymous, hey, they're right, it's anonymous, this guy's only using his first name, after the meeting I'll gladly give him or her my last name, thank you.
Hi everybody, my name is Don Mendiola, and I'm a grateful alcoholic from Reno, Nevada. I regret that our aspiring young actor has gone, who gets ticked at the word recovered, the big book that I read, it says that we are 100 recovered alcoholics, maybe his doesn't, that's alright, but I hope I'm speaking here today to people who are involved in the public information field in Alcoholics Anonymous, out there, wherever you all are from, because I happen to be in a position as the central office manager for the northern Nevada, and a great deal of northern California's area, and like a very smaller section of the state, smaller scale than what Lila gets, but the phone does ring on many, many occasions, saying Don, did you read this morning's journal, and I said yes, and I saw what you're talking about, well what are you going to do about it? And of course, the reason I'm talking now is for those of you who are public information people, not only in our central office do I manage it, I also publish the newsletter that goes out to all over the United States and a great many foreign countries, and I don't get any articles printed for me to publish from our public information people, and I wish that I did, maybe your intergroup offices or whoever the public publisher of your newsletters happen to be are suffering the same thing that I am. I'm here only to encourage you public information people to help whoever the person is that puts out a newsletter to get these words out, like the press is not responsible for our traditions, we as AA members are responsible for the not violating the traditions of Alcoholics Anonymous. The press cannot be held liable for that, and there are a lot of AA members who do not know that, everyone in this room now knows that because Lila said it, it's been said by Ruth on many occasions in our state, and you just heard me say it, and it's a very true thing. Another thing that I experience from our AA members in Northern Nevada specifically, and my feelings were hurt, I bought a personalized license plate for my car, and it happens to be at the hotel where I'm staying here in Montreal right now, and my license plate very proudly reads, Nevada, the Silver State, AA, I O U.
Thank you. But a period after that, ladies and gentlemen, you have my story. You would
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not have believed some of the things that came across these ears when I put that license plate on my car. What I can't forget is the day I went to the Department of Motor Vehicles to pick up my license plate, the young lady who handed it to me, she says, Mr. Mendiola, she says, I always ask people what these mean, she says, you know, some of them are dirty, and I says, yes, I imagine they are, and she says, I can understand the I O U, but I don't know what the AA means, and I don't know where it came from, I do know where it came from, and you do too, it came from a quick jolt from my higher power. I says, oh, sweetheart, I says, my Aunt Alice gave me the car, and that plate is for my Aunt Alice, and she says, she bought off on that, and I paid the fee, and I put the plates on my car, and that was it. The only other thing I'd like to make a statement on is, I think, for Diane's quotes from everything, I carry this card in my wallet, what our responsibility is, the Declaration of Unity, but from Bill's last message, and I'll quote this, this was read by Lois at the 1970 Annual New York Intergroup Dinner, and it says, and I quote, if I were asked which of our blessings I felt was most responsible for our growth as a fellowship, and most vital to our continuity, I would say the concept of anonymity. Thank you.
Thank you. We only have about five minutes left, and I did want to mention that for those of you who weren't at the other public information workshops, there is a press kit available of press stories, which some newsletters are beginning to use in their newsletters. They're good educational pieces. There's one brand new one on young people. All you have to do is write and ask for them. Okay? Hi, everybody. My name's Bob, and I'm an alcoholic, and I'm involved in P.I. work in Central Connecticut.
Lila is aware I'm trying to find out as much as I can about anonymity. They tell me there are no dumb questions in AA, and I'm glad of that, but this morning I asked the question. I thought I remembered something about anonymity, so I asked the question. Isn't it a tradition, and isn't a group concern, and should not the group discipline a person who violates anonymity? Then a very nice lady at the platform answered my question. She says, no, we write a nice polite letter, and handle it discreetly, and let it go at that. I says, I know that.
I read it somewhere, but I had forgotten that, so I need the reminders. I have to have these reminders. Keep myself in set. I like what Diane said about I'm not the one doing the public information work. When I took the job, I was reluctant. I said, I know nothing about it. What am I going to do? How am I going to handle it? I don't even know how to start. I don't even have a contact, and I had to do what she suggested. I had to ask for God's help. God is my higher power, and he sent it to me. My good friend George down front there was one of those rescuers that came to me, and we did get successful. One little incident at one high school we went to. We present this program to high school kids, AA, Al-Anon, and Al-Ateem. We tell them the program is theirs for their help. After we concluded, one of the young fellas came up to me, and this is typical. He says, Jesus, I have a friend who needs help. What shall I do? So I very courteously gave him the information that he could give to his friend. I want to thank you all for being here. You're my lifesavers.
They say some people take a long time getting here. It took me 40 years to get into AA. I want to thank you all. Thank you. We have about two-and-a-half minutes left before we wrap up. Thank you. My name is Irma, and I'm an alcoholic from Mexico. I just wanted to share some of my experiences. Before becoming an active alcoholic, I was fairly known in my country for being a singer. Then when I started, after a few years of sobriety, I was sort of like thrown into the, by my own volition, of course, into the responsibility, self-appointed of course, responsibility of feeling that there were so few people, few women in groups.
My country is a very macho country, so you know that women are, now it's different. It's about one in ten, more or less. But at that time, we were five or six, 15 years ago, five or six women in AA, in a whole community of thousands of alcoholics already. So anyway,
[01:25:03]
I started using the access that I have to the media. I think I was lucky on most of the occasions because I was able to give my personal experience as an alcoholic, and to the best of my ability, to just share that this was an illness that was a respectable illness, and could be treated, and that people could seek help. There was usually in the panel somebody else that could be giving, somebody else, not myself, could be giving the telephone of GSO, of Alcoholics Anonymous, for information regarding the whole panel of service that was given. Until one day that I was nailed, and I was put on the spot by an interviewer that was, it was not supposed to be an interview for as a recovering person. I was singing, and then he just thrown at me, it was a live program, that he wanted to hear something, or the public wanted to hear something about my recovery.
And then, well, okay, I was off guard, but still I was able to talk about my alcoholism, not my affiliation. But at one point he came at me with a, well, but how do you manage to stay sober? And that was terrible. Because at that point I realized that I couldn't take the responsibility of giving half a message. One was that recovery is possible, but the other was where? And at that moment I was alone. There was nobody there to say, hey, this is AA and you can call as one of the agencies now that can give you information.
So anyway, I made a mess of things, and I just said, I am not going to say directly that I am affiliated. Even if I were, I couldn't say it because of the nature of the spiritual nature, not using the name of an institution, speaking for myself. But anyway, the only thing that I wanted to share now was that it is a big responsibility, and that I have to examine my motives, too, because it is a very fine line between servicing the cause of recovery and my own sobriety, sharing and passing the message, and using the media for my own glorification when I don't feel very secure about myself, which is very often.
Thank you. We're out of time. Maybe if you just each take a minute and we'll wrap up after that, okay? Okay. I'm Dave. I'm an alcoholic. Hi, Dave. Hi. I just wanted to say, I had worked as a counselor on a chemical dependency unit, and one thing I noticed, it seemed like this unit, whenever we'd be short on a census, they'd suddenly start marketing. They'd go out to the different newspapers and start talking about how they do their program, and it never seemed to fail. They'd always have a picture of Alcoholics Anonymous book, like on a patient's desk or table. It'd always be in the background where you could see it. And the last thing they did, just prior to me quitting, was they mentioned that all the counselors are either recovering alcoholics and or addicts, and that just infuriated me. And I think, I see a lot of that, it seems like. I'm from Chicago, and I don't know, it's in the Daily Calumet newspaper. They seem like they do it, every time the patient's census goes down, they're doing a little blurb about the unit and what great work they do. But they're really blowing all the traditions, as far as I'm concerned. That's it. We get a few of those, but not too many, not too many at all. I want to thank these wonderful speakers. Give them a hand. I want to thank you for allowing me to moderate this meeting, and let's all stand and close with the Lord's Prayer.