| Edition 1 | September 2005 | Issue 7 |
“Let’s look at the right of appeal. A century ago a young Frenchman DeTocqueville came to this country to look at the new Republic. Despite the fact that his family had suffered loss of life and property in the French Revolution, this nobleman-student had begun to love democracy and to believe in its future. His writing on the subject is still a classic. But he did express one deep fear for the future; he feared the tyranny of the majority, especially that of the uninformed, the angry, or the close majority. He wanted to be sure that minority opinion could always be well heard and never trampled upon. How very right he was has already been sensed by the Conference.
Therefore, I propose that we further insure, in A.A. service matters, the right to appeal. Under it, the minority of any committee, corporate Board, or a minority of the Board of Trustees, or a minority of this Conference, could continue to appeal, if they wished, all the way forward to the whole A.A. movement, thus making the minority voice both clear and loud.” (Bill W. talk to the 1956 General Service Conference)
Welcome to Our Primary Purpose Forum. The aim of the OPPF newsletter is to provide communication and information by and for the fellowship of Alcoholics Anonymous and provide a voice for the Minority Opinion to be heard. We are members of Alcoholics Anonymous that are concerned with the direction our fellowship is headed. It is our hope that together we can work to restore the fellowship and its simple program of recovery to its spiritual effectiveness in helping alcoholics to recover and also return to the principle of AA as a fellowship of men and women working together in autonomous groups, one drunk to another.
Dennis M. Co-editor
My sincere apologies for being so late with the September issue of OPPF but the good news is the next issue should be on time because the material is already pretty much together.
Our prayers and condolences are with all the people who lost so much in the terrible tragedy from Hurricane Katrina and Rita. Many of us know that as recovered alcoholics nothing works better for us in tough times as helping alcoholics. I am sure that alcoholics caught in the middle of this terrible disaster have been helping others in their family and community. In the shelters after some of their needs are provided like water and food, medical concerns and after some rest I am sure they will be drawn to other alcoholics to help also. That is the nature of drunks that have had a spiritual recovery.
Many AA members responded to the request from Central Offices in the disaster areas for money to purchase books for the shelters and other items as well like cloths and non-perishable food. Many AAMO members found alternative sources for books not wanting to fill the coffers of AAWS. A few hundred Little Big Books arrived that was left from the AA Big Book Study Groups jail and prison project. Anonymous Press also sent books with help from the 7th Tradition of members, as well as other groups and members sending AP books. Some members drove down there to personally help with AA meetings in the shelters and other services.
As it stands now the Central Office Intergroups have enough books, and they give a big thanks to those that responded to the immediate need.
From the Baton Rouge Central Office:
"Thanks to the generosity of the AA community all over the United States. We have had calls from California, Massachusetts, North Carolina, Florida, Maryland and areas in our precious state that have power, to offer their homes to fellow AA members, to offer literature, AA meetings, clothes, their time, you name it! Thanks Bill and Dr. Bob and all our friends for the hand of AA that knows no boundaries!"
Dennis M. OPPF Co-Editor
Every once in a while God blesses us with a very special person, a person that is so loving and caring that only the best that is in all of us is attracted to the light of their soul. People that can inspire us and understand us in a way that makes us feel very close to them; a person that can understand us better than our own family, parents, or love ones in some cases. For many of us Inez was such a person. Inez McD. departed this plane recently and our deepest condolences to her husband Dennis and their children and family members.
Inez was very active throughout AA for her entire sobriety. She was active in General Service, hospitals, and her groups and later she became part of the Minority Opinion Group and other on-line groups as well. But the service work she loved the most was working one on one with drunks, both sponsoring gals, and good old time AA 12-Step calls. She just loved drunks and basic Big Book AA. She and her husband were both blessed that their marriage continued into sobriety and both shared their AA recovery through basic AA and service. It would be extremely difficult to miss the miracle, and hope that their example inspired many people like myself on the power of God and His ability to transform our lives into something beneficial to the world. Yes I believed Inez contributed a great deal not only to AA but to the world itself.
She was genuine, real and full of love. If I was taking pleasure in my righteous anger with something then I would not want to read a post from her because she would absolutely ruin the temporary enjoyment without even knowing it, just by being herself.
I wanted to honor her contribution to AA by printing some posts from her in the OPPF. I spent several days reading her past post and compiled a list that would take several issues of OPPF to complete. Although she wrote on many issues my favorites were her personal experience with drunks and her humor on serious topics which is in itself an indication of her sobriety. She was a strong woman but with a gentle spirit.
Learn more about Inez through gso newsgroup posts.
Dennis M.
The post is not too long. You just don't know how I love to hear people like you share. I think that is the problem with AA today. No one wants to be bothered and it is sad that the ones that have been so sick when they came in will not talk to the new drunk if they are drunk! Just kills me! Every one around here knows that I love the drunk and I do not get mad very easy or get resentments often but let someone say something ugly to a sick guy that shows up at the meeting and BOY I AM MAD!!!! Excuse the caps. When new we had the group phone often, and I just loved it. I have talked with drunks for long periods of time asking questions trying to find out if they could have a problem with DTs, also used to ask them if there was some one in the house with them. Wanted to make sure they did not go out alone.
There are clubs that will not let drunks come to the meeting until after they have not drank for a while, or go to detox, this really kills me, say you have to have 4 or 5 days sober before they will take you. Darn, if they can stay sober on their own what do they need with detox. A young man and I started a halfway house in Galveston for the homeless and we rented it in a zoned part of town, the historical society district yet. We told the landlady what we wanted it for and she said OK but if anyone asks me I will tell them I did not know. This house was perfect. Some of the neighbors questioned the police about what was going on and the police questioned us.
Well, no one had done any thing bad there and they told us they would talk to the neighbors and for us to just keep it quiet as we had been doing. No noise or rowdy people around. We paid the rent by getting voluntary donations from some of the members that could afford it and having the members get food stamps. So it was going good. A lady came in as she had no where to go until she got sober and got her job back at the hosp. Well she did stay sober, got her job back and is still doing very well, lots of work with new people. She still remembers and talks about the help she got. At meetings people are always saying, if you drink don't call me after you drink call me before you drink. Of course, I will tell them if you drink my phone will still ring and I will talk with you and try to do whatever needs to be done to help you. I just never was taught that we get well and then we decide to join AA. I really do appreciate your post. Glad we are not in a 12th step meeting. No one else would get to talk, grin.
Inez McD.
R.I.P.
Dear Group, This is a story about a girl I sponsored that came into AA as an Atheist, I am sharing this with her permission. She was a very small girl and young. Had been going to AA off and on for awhile. Could not stay sober, when I met her thru her mother, an Alanon, when she came home from Okla. recuperating from a terrible one car accident on the mountains in Okla. She was driving home or some where drunk. Missed a curve or some thing, she does not know which, and her car went off the road down the side of this mountain or big hill. The car had turned over and over and she was thrown out and the car landed on top of her and stopped. She is about 4ft 11in. weights about 90 lbs. She of course is out cold. How long, who knows.
A lady and her husband were driving by and they passed the place where she probably went off the road but it was not noticeable from the road. After they passed this spot the lady told her husband to turn around and go back. Some one was in trouble. He questioned her just a little bit and she said some thing told me to go back. So they went back and stopped the car where she told him, they got out and with flash lights they looked down and around and she saw the car and called the police.
They came and went down to investigate and found her under the car, crushed but alive, barely. The ambulance came and took her to the hospital. She stayed in the hospital for quite a while, she had metal plates and pins in all her bones, she should have been dead and they said if they had not gotten her when they did she would have been.
This couple got her name and they went to the hospital to check on her. She was out for quite a while but they kept coming back to check on her. When she finally came to the lady told her what had happened and how she was told by some one to go back. That is when she got her first instinct that maybe there was a God or HP out there some where.
She stayed sober and worked the steps and finally she told me I could quit referring to God as HP, she said don't you realize I know there is a God now. He saved my life when he told that lady to go back. Who else could have done it?
I am not trying to change any ones mind about their beliefs just thought this girl's story might help some one, I did not have a problem with God or HP but this certainly did make my beliefs stronger. This gal is sober today and has a very nice husband and children. I just think if you or I believe in whatever it is our business and that is the way this program works. This story may not help any one but I hope it helps someone.
Your friend in recovery,
Inez McD.
R.I.P.
There is no greater pleasure than sitting with a drunk and filling them with honey and whatever to get them through the shakes and then to watch them GET IT and WANT IT.
Inez McD.
R.I.P.
I love this share about 12th stepping. This is the kind of 12 Stepping I was taught when new and did, with people that new what they were doing. They were my teachers. We had a club in Galveston that had an Upstairs and they let sick shaking drunks stay there for a while trying to get Sober. The first time I was taken there I was very new and still shaking. They sat me down by a dirty shaking drunk and told me to keep giving him tablespoons of honey every few minutes. This I did. Didn't really know what I was doing or why but I did it. I thought you had to do whatever they told you or they kicked you out. I wanted to stay very bad. So I did what I was told. I will always be grateful that the sick man was there and I gave him Honey.
I never saw him again so I don't know what happened to him. But I stayed sober. I did not want to go where he was. Back then it was not the people with long term sobriety that kept me sober it was the ones that kept going out. They kept me fighting taking the drink. I really miss all the 12th step calls we had when I came in and there were no treatment ctrs. We kept them at home and in meetings.
I have never refused to go on a 12 step call and I pray that I never do. I think I would be on the way out if I did.
Inez McD.
R.I.P.
That is what we did when we first came in. With the way Dennis worked we could not bring guys to our house to sober up but I use to bring the gals. Dennis [her husband -ed.] would be gone for days and not a good idea for me to be there with some guy/guys while he was gone on the boat. I still do not talk or try to get them in treatment programs unless there is no other way. We have always had some medical people to talk to and get advice from too.
I figured your group there was doing every thing they are doing.
Inez McD.
R.I.P.
You just told my sober life story. That is what I live for too. Like you I can not believe there are people in AA with years of sobriety that have never worked the steps. Without them I would not be here for sure.
I love the praying on knees with the new people, I always get a wonderful feeling of My God/HP when I am on my knees with another. I would have hated to have missed the pleasure of working with and sharing the steps of recovery with them.
Love to all in the fellowship and if you have done nothing else go out and find a new one and welcome them into our rooms of recovery.
Inez McD.
R.I.P.
Yes, that is very important for the new gals to know, new meaning they have never been on a 12th step call before. I always had some booze for them but started on honey, orange juice with honey, and the great Carney Mary Bug Juice. Gad, I had to mix it the first time I ever heard of it and I told the lady, goodness I can not give her this, I would have to take her to the ER and have her stomach pumped out. She said if you don't you can call the morgue. Well, that got my attention and so I gave it to her and it worked very good. Good enough to stop the DT's but not good enough to want more until needed.
I sure do miss those 12th step calls.
Inez McD.
R.I.P.
This has saved 100's of lives in the Houston area so I was told. But gad, I still shutter when I think about mixing it. Bug Juice: I lg bottle of very cheap wine, l med. bottle of Aqua Velvet after shaving lotion. Pour the wine in large bottle then the shaving lotion. Mix and give a jigger of it to the new shaking drunk. It worked on the lady I took there and she came home in two wks sober.
Inez McD.
R.I.P.
Oh, M., I would put money on it that you are a 14th stepper, too. A 14TH STEPPER IS A SPONSOR THAT SCREWS UP SOMEONES 13TH STEP!!!!!!!!!
I do have that reputation back home in Galveston. Actually, I never told any one they could not date any one really, but I let them use my name as their sponsor that said they could not date for a year so they would leave them alone. If they continued I would say something to them, though. Bought one of my sponsee's a T-shirt that said; "what part of NO don't you understand." So when they kept on she would turn her back to them and tell them to read.
Inez McD.
R.I.P.
Well, I do not like that statement at all or the other one; it is the first drink that gets you drunk. I heard that at about my third meeting and I thought goodness I do not qualify for membership here. Takes a lot more than a drink to get me drunk. So I proceeded to ask members when they were going to give me the test, they just kept smiling and saying keep coming back, which I did waiting for them to give me the test so I could let them know that I did not qualify for membership here. Finally one member asked me what test are you talking about? I said the test to prove I belong here. He grinned and said; oh, Inez, you belong and you are in the right place. Darn, I really just wanted to go get one of those first drinks. I will be forever grateful that the members there just kept loving me until I could forgive you and love me.
Inez McD.
R.I.P.
I was given the little book, Living Sober, when I was real new. I was so Brain dead when I came in I could not retain any thing I read but in that book. I do remember it said to eat sweets, keep candy handy, well, being a Diabetic, I grabbed hold of that and did it for quite awhile until I ended up In the hospital. We really need to be careful of what we tell new people.
If it is not in the BB I do not tell it. If I can not show you where it is in the BB I do not tell you what it says. I have found that people that tell you to look it up sometimes don't know where it is and a lot of time it is not in the BB.
Inez McD.
R.I.P.
This is what we were taught from the very beginning. At our first meeting Dennis went up to this man and asked him how does this thing work? He said, Trust God, Clean House and Help others. Probably best advice we ever had, that man is now our sponsor, he was Dennis' but after mine died i turned to him and he still is.
If it is not in the BB I do not tell it. If I can not show you where it is in the BB I do not tell you what it says. I have found that people that tell you to look it up sometimes don't know where it is and a lot of time it is not in the BB.
Inez McD.
R.I.P.
Dear Abby,
We in Alcoholic Anonymous have lost our authority as it was given to us in our Service Manuel, 1997/1998. "the ultimate responsibility and final authority for World Services" resides with the groups--rather than with the trustees of the General Service Board or the GSO in New York. Since this was not brought to the groups for approval how did they take it away and HOW can we GET IT BACK?
Inez McD.
R.I.P.
Dear Inez,
The way I see it is you all need to stick together and attend every meeting you can, District and Area. Keep your leaders informed of every thing you learn. Good luck and may God walk with you.
A friend of AA,
Abby
Dear Abby,
Our Concept V states throughout our structure, a Traditional "Right of Appeal" ought to prevail, so that minority opinion will be heard and personal grievances receive careful consideration. Now they have changed it so they can just block a minority from speaking at the conference. How can supposedly spiritual people make these changes? What can we do besides using their tactics and getting into litigations with them?
Inez McD.
R.I.P.
Dear Inez,
Inform every one you come in contact with about what is happening to your fellowship. Write letters to all and keep them coming until they have to do some thing about it. Encourage all to write and talk it up. Keep it up until it is all resolved.
A friend of AA,
Abby
You are right on!!! The Rush from helping another. Feeding a hungry alcoholic, getting them some clothes to wear or washing the ones they have. Finding them a place to stay if they have no home or family.
Givingggggggggggg and then more givingggggggggggg!!!! And the BEST of all is giving of yourself. Time is the greatest thing we have to give and goodness it is free. Put your time to good use and you will be surprised how you feel about yourself. When I feel good about YOU it makes me feel good about myself.
Love to all and practice more giving
Inez McD.
R.I.P.
Remember; "With God in one hand and a drunk in the other hand, it leaves no hand to pick up a drink."
Sincerely and I really love all alcoholics, drunk or sober,
Inez McD.
R.I.P.
Contact us: oppf@aamo.info <-- Email obsolete, no new contact - 2009
Any AA member or AA group may use, copy, distribute any material in the OPPF. But we ask that you respect that this is to be used only within Alcoholics Anonymous.
Common folks don't be shy send in you views, comments, and letters.
Thank You,
Dennis M.
OPPF Co-Editor
