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Significant November Dates in AA History |
Nov 1934 - Ebby T. carries message to Bill. |
Nov 1935 - Fitz M leaves Towns Hospital to become 'AA #3 in NY', with Bill W and Hank P. |
Nov 11, 1934 - Armistice Day; Bill started drinking after a dry spell, was the beginning of Bill's last drunk. |
Nov 12, 1940 - 1st AA meeting is held in Boston. |
Nov 13, 1939 - Bill wants to go to work at Towns Hospital; New York drunks want him to stay on as head of the movement. |
Nov 14, 1940 - Alcoholic Foundation publishes 1st AA Bulletin. |
Nov 15, 1949 - Bill W suggests that groups devote Thanksgiving week to discussions of the 12 Traditions. |
Nov 16, 1950 - Dr. Bob died in Akron, Ohio. |
Nov 26, 1895 - Bill W was born in East Dorsett, VT. |
Nov 28, 1943 - Bill is the guest speaker at the San Quentin Penitentiary. |
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Should the Big Book be Changed?
There seems to be an interest by some members of the General Service Office to make changes / rewrite, the Big Book. Below you will see a letter that had been sent to select members of our fellowship. It was brought to our attention at the January Area Assembly.
Along with the letter, there are questions to be answered. We ask that you make your voice heard, whether for or against changes, and answer those question
and email them back to GSO:
https://www.aa.org/contact-literature
"Because this book has become the basic text for our Society and has helped such large numbers of alcoholic men and women to recovery, there exists strong sentiment against any radical changes being made in it."
(Preface to the 4th Edition of Alcoholics Anonymous)
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More About Alcoholism
MOST OF us have been unwilling to admit we were real alcoholics. No person likes to think he is bodily and mentally different from his fellows. Therefore, it is not surprising that our drinking careers have been characterized by countless vain attempts to prove we could drink like other people. The idea that somehow, someday he will control and enjoy his drinking is the great obsession of every abnormal drinker. The persistence of this illusion is astonishing. Many pursue it into the gates of insanity or death.
We learned that we had to fully concede to our innermost selves that we were alcoholics. This is the first step in recovery. The delusion that we are like other people, or presently may be, has to be smashed.
We alcoholics are men and women who have lost the ability to control our drinking. We know that no real alcoholic ever recovers control. All of us felt at times that we were regaining control, but such intervals—usually brief—were inevitably followedby still less control, which led in time to pitiful and incomprehensible demoralization. We are convinced to a man that alcoholics of our type are in the grip of a progressive illness. Over any considerable period we get worse, never better.
We are like men who have lost their legs; they never grow new ones. Neither does there appear to be any kind of treatment which will make alcoholics of our kind like other men. We have tried every imaginable remedy. In some instances there has been brief recovery, followed always by a still worse relapse. Physicians who are familiar with alcoholism agree there is no such thing as making a normal drinker out of an alcoholic. Science may one day accomplish this, but it hasn’t done so yet.
Despite all we can say, many who are real alcoholics are not going to believe they are in that class. By every form of self-deception and experimentation, they will try to prove themselves exceptions to the rule, therefore nonalcoholic. If anyone who is showing inability to control his drinking can do the right- about-face and drink like a gentleman, our hats are off to him. Heaven knows, we have tried hard enough and long enough to drink like other people!
Here are some of the methods we have tried: Drinking beer only, limiting the number of drinks, never drinking alone, never drinking in the morning, drinking only at home, never having it in the house, never drinking during business hours, drinking only at parties, switching from scotch to brandy, drinking only natural wines, agreeing to resign if ever drunk on the job, taking a trip, not taking a trip, swearing off forever (with and without a solemn oath), taking more physical exercise, reading inspirational books, going to health farms and sanitariums, accepting voluntary commitment to asylums—we could increase the list ad infinitum.
p.30-31, Alcoholics Anonymous, Reprinted with permission of AA World Services
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