Even a Worthy One

This is the day the Tradition costs something, so the objection deserves stating at full strength. There are public questions where one side is doing measurable harm, where the evidence is not close, and where a large body of sober people saying so plainly might genuinely move something. Silence in that situation does not feel like principle. It feels like cowardice wearing policy as a coat. Bill W. did not pretend otherwise. He wrote (A.A. Comes of Age) that A.A. had known from the very beginning that no matter what the provocation "we must never publicly take sides" — "in any fight, even a worthy one." Even a worthy one. He wrote the hard case directly into the rule instead of leaving it as an exception somebody could argue for later. And then, in the same breath, he refused the conclusion people draw from it. Members of A.A. are "now restored as citizens of the world," and nothing here asks them to back away from their individual responsibility to act as they see the right upon the issues of their time. The member is not being asked to go quiet. A.A. is.