As We Elect

Dr. Bob's last major talk said A.A. would grow or die by what it refused to get mixed up in. Detroit, 1948 (Dr. Bob and the Good Oldtimers): "It is possible for us to grow or not to grow, as we elect." Then his conditions: "If we fight shy of entangling alliances, if we avoid getting messed up with controversial issues (religious or political or wet-dry), if we maintain unity through our central offices, if we preserve the simplicity of our program, if we remember that our job is to get sober and to stay sober and to help our less fortunate brother do the same thing, then we shall continue to grow and thrive and prosper." Wet-dry was the fight over whether liquor should be legal. Religious, political, wet-dry: the same three fights the long form of Tradition 10 names (Big Book, p. 565). And the list ends on the drunk, the less fortunate brother still drinking. The refusals come first because they protect that job. Today it is quieter: an "A.A. meeting" printed on a program's schedule beside the program's public positions on drug policy or funding. Nobody at the meeting says a word, and the meeting is allied anyway. Test it tonight: whose name besides the group's is on your meeting's door or schedule, and what is that name on record for?