Should We Take a Stand?

You Decide…

We are going through troubling times, and two of the most frequently asked questions the Cleveland District Office gets are the following:

1. Why are you letting meetings open when COVID is raging, and the Governor has issued certain orders or advisories?
2. Why are you closing meetings when we need them to carry out our primary purpose of carrying the message to the alcoholic who still suffers?

The Cleveland District Office does not start meetings. So we can neither restart them nor close them. The individual group members govern when to start – or restart — or stop them. Additionally, right now many of the facilities holding AA meetings are closed or do not want to hold extra meetings in their facilities. We have no control over that.

The following principles of Alcoholics Anonymous should help our members decide how they want to function through this unprecedented time.

Tradition 6

An A.A. group ought never endorse, finance, or lend the AA name to any related facility or outside enterprise, lest problems of money, property, and prestige divert us from our primary purpose.

Tradition 10

Alcoholics Anonymous has no opinion on outside issues; hence, the AA name ought never be drawn into public controversy.

Page 132 of the Big Book of Alcoholics Anonymous

We try not to indulge in cynicism over the state of the nations, nor do we carry the world’s troubles on our shoulders.

Page 84 of the Big Book of Alcoholics Anonymous

Continue to watch for selfishness, dishonesty, resentment, and fear. When these crop up, we ask God at once to remove them. We discuss them with someone immediately and make amends quickly if we have harmed anyone. Then we resolutely turn our thoughts to someone we can help. Love and tolerance of others is our code.

And we have ceased fighting anything or anyone—even alcohol. For by this time sanity will have returned.