but we have a program and if people will accept this program it's foolproof
you can't ever drink again if you accept and apply the aaa program it's impossible
i don't sponsor new people anymore i don't have the time i have people when i do find
a new person i usually turn him over to someone who i've talked to before and take them to the
steps and let them work on them they need that exercise but what i get is this i get people who
have been around aaa or naa some have been dry some of them haven't over a period of year years
and they hear about this nut down in castleberry florida who has some peculiar way of fixing drunks
in two days it takes you through the steps in two days and you never drink anymore and
you have a good life now this sounds pretty good a lot of people you know
and i try and they call i i don't get very many people from around orlando of course and probably
is without honor in his own home i'm a bomb there but i go 100 miles away i'm an authority
these people mostly come from different parts of the state or out of the state
and they're sincere people i don't want them to come unless they are and when they come i
have a qualification for them and here's what i do with every one of those persons
first of all i want to know that you are an alcoholic and i want you to know it
and i want you to admit it how do i know you are an alcoholic well after 45 years of fooling around
with rummage if i don't know an alcoholic when i run into one they better lock me up for good
because the alcoholics are different than people
all the good are different than people we are in a class by ourselves our characteristics are the
same i don't say that some civilians don't have some of our characteristics but they don't have
all of them but every one of us has the same pattern as far as the way we're put together
our process is up here i don't talk about thinking process because they don't think
alcoholics don't ever catch an alcoholic thinking or real trouble
but no they're all alike and after conversation i can ascertain to my
satisfaction that the person's an alcoholic he or she is an alcoholic and he or she admits it
a lot of them don't know what an alcoholic is never to explain to them
you know and most people all of them not most of them every alcoholic i've ever met
has a very poor opinion of himself his feeling of self-worth is next to zero
and i tell him what a great guy is and i prove it to him that he's different than people and
he's got something that these other people don't have and don't ever try to be like those people
be you and i teach them how how do we do this do this by taking them into the steps
i have a way of these questions i ask first of all i want to know if it's an alcoholic and he
finally admits here that the next thing i ask for this what do you want to do about it
a lot of people don't want to do anything about it
a lot of people quit off quick forum saying so i want to know what they'll do so
they go what are you willing to do to quit drinking forever don't say anything about
quit drinking for 24 hours or 24 years forever that's a long time especially something that
has never had a weak surprise in his life you get some funny answers on that one sometimes
where do i get that from that's in the book it says if you want what we have
and are willing to go to any lengths to get it you are now ready to take certain steps
that's what it says in the book i didn't make that up but people don't throw this at their people and
they come in they let anybody walk in and sit down wheelchair and half the people sitting in a lot of
these meetings i haven't even don't even belong there and no more alcoholics and i'm an astronaut
a related problem caused a split of another kind one of the cleveland members of the akron group
clarence snyder began to realize that as long as the self-help group was tied to the oxford group
it could never hope to assimilate catholics jews or agnostics the majority of the fellows
that were going down to the oxford group with me were catholics a catholic in those days they
were not permitted by their church to belong to such a group as the oxford movement
so something had to be done i said all we need is a 12-step program the four absolutes
and anyone can live with that so i went down to akron the next week and made the announcement
that this is the last time the cleveland contingent will be down here as a group
we are starting our own group in cleveland ohio at 2345 stillman road cleveland heights
and this is not going to be an oxford group this is going to be known as alcoholics anonymous
we're taking the name from the book and only alcoholics and their families are welcome
alcoholics anonymous is an offshoot of the oxford group movement which aspired to live by the
teachings of jesus christ in its infancy a.a split off and distinguished itself as a fellowship whose
primary purpose is to stay sober and help other alcoholics achieve sobriety the only requirement
for membership is a desire to stop drinking and all are welcome regardless of faith or creed
though christian in origin the 12 steps were altered so as to make them acceptable to
persons of any faith or no faith nowhere does the literature proclaim jesus christ as lord savior
and aaa members are encouraged to find a higher power of their own understanding
you