To links and current events

Your Help for the Calendar of Events

A complete Calendar of Events depends on our active members contributing information about their coming events, participation of Intergroups in surrounding Districts, and our ability to gather information. We feel it is worth trying. Let us know what you think. Often, we miss opportunities within the fellowship because the message didn't get out. We all want to carry the message to other alcoholics. This will be one more way we can accomplish that.

The soul would have no rainbow,
If the eyes had no tears.

OUR FACE IS CHANGING

    Sobriety News is updated during the course of the month, so events can be added to the Calendar. You may, therefore, find it helpful or informative to check back to the website periodically to see what has been added.
    The HAI index page has links to flyers of coming events, or you can click on the AA blue button above. Did you know that the links page also has links to other AA websites and to back issues of Sobriety News? Also there is a link to the Meeting Schedule (or click the coin at right) so you can print out the schedule (if you can access Microsoft Word) on a single sheet of 8 1/2X11 paper. This schedule is current with the latest information available. If you see an error, or information for your meeting has been changed, the schedule will be updated if you notify us at aa@aaharrisburg.org , or if you notify an Intergroup Officer,  or mail the info to HAI, Fellowship House, 1251 S. 19th Street, Harrisburg, PA 17105. This current schedule can be duplicated for group purposes from this link or by clicking on the chip at the right.
    Flyers will be added as they become available and removed when an event passes. If you are looking at this on the Internet, you will see that many of the insert pictures are links you can click on to get added information or flyers. Keep checking.
    The above suggested service opportunity to bring internet information back to the group could also be broadened to include flyers, and current meeting schedules. The printed schedules and flyers will still be available but may continue to have their current disadvantages too.

If anyone in our AA community knows sign language and is willing to be of service, there is a need in the Harrisburg Area for their help. If you are willing to help a hearing impaired person, please notify Intergroup through you Intergroup Rep.

INTERNET SOURCE FOR RECORDED AA TALKS

 There is a new source for some good AA recordings of talks from the Harbor City Speakers, Acts of Recovery, South College Speaker Group, Steps in Action, Unity in Action, White Rose, and various others. These are free for you to download in MP3 format on your computer. The web address is http://greatfact.org A

The Acts of Recovery are spreading rapidly across the country, making it possible for those new in parenting, or in the job market, to obtain the flavor of conferences that can otherwise cost hundreds of dollars.  These events, condensed into five hours, provide four quality messages of experience, strength and hope, and a lunch, free of cost. Of course , you don't have to be new in recovery to take advantage of these opportunities. 

You can participate in this experience by attending the next Harrisburg Acts on May 7, with four great speakers who will be: Brian Q from York, "Obviously"; Paula P from Hershey, "We were Reborn"; Vicki N from Baltimore, "The First Principle of Success"; and Tom F from Glen Burnie, "Great Events Will Come to Pass". See the flyer .

    A man and his son were walking in the forest. Suddenly the boy trips and feeling a sharp pain he screams, "Ahhhh." Surprised, he hears a voice coming from the mountain, "Ahhhh" 
Filled with curiosity, he screams: "Who are you?" But the only answer he receives is: "Who are you?"
    This makes him angry, so he screams: "You are a coward!" and the voice answers: "You are a coward!" 
    He looks at his father, asking, "Dad, what is going on?" 
    "Son," the man replies, "pay attention!" Then he screams, "I admire you!" The voice answers "I admire you!" The father shouts, "You are wonderful!" and the voice answers, "You are Wonderful!"
    The boy is surprised, but still can't understand what is going on.
    Then the father explains, "People call this 'ECHO', but truly it is 'LIFE'! Life always gives you back what you give out! Life is a mirror of your actions. If you want more love, give more love! If you want more kindness, give more kindness! If you want understanding and respect, give understanding and respect! If you want people to be patient and respectful to you, give patience and respect! This rule of nature applies to every aspect of our lives." Life always gives you back what you give out. Your life is not a coincidence, but a mirror of Your own doings.

Author Unknown

New Meetings and Changes
The Big Book Study Group Friday night meeting needs support. The group meets Tuesdays and Fridays at 7pm at Faith United Church of Christ, 1120 Drexel Hills Blvd. in New Cumberland, and although Tuesday is well attended, the Friday meeting would benefit from additional attendance. Both meetings are in different sections of the first 164p. There is a flyer on the links page.

The Nooner in Hershey Group has added a Thursday  noon meeting to the week. This meeting will have the same open discussion format as the Tuesday meeting, and will also be held at the United Church of the Redeemer at 500 West Chocolate Avenue in Hershey.

The Easier, Softer Way Group which started on February 1, 2005, will be a Tuesday Noon AA Open Discussion Meeting at the Trinity Lutheran Church, 20^th and Market Sts in Camp Hill. This will be a non-smoking meeting and it is handicapped accessible.

The Sunday Big Book meeting of the 19th Street Group has been changed from eight to 7:00PM, and the change is reflected on the latest schedules.

March Intergroup Meeting

 I am unique,
Just like everyone else.

Traditions Checklist

    Instead of regarding ourselves as intelligent agents, spearheads of God's ever advancing Creation, we agnostics and atheists chose to believe that our human intelligence was the last word, the alpha and the omega, the beginning and end of all. Rather vain of us, wasn't it?
    We, who have traveled this dubious path, beg you to lay aside prejudice, even against organized religion. We have learned that whatever the human frailties of various faiths may be,
those faiths have given purpose and direction to millions. People of faith have a logical idea of what life is all about.

With permission, Alcoholics Anonymous World Services, Inc.

FOOD FOR THOUGHT

"This message is directed only to those to whom alcohol has become the BIGGEST problem in life...the true, heart-weary, ego-inflated, defeated Alcoholic."
("Who Me?" pamphlet published by Original Salt Lake Group in Early 40's)

"You may ask what could be the problem with being a little more inclusive about our membership? Didn't Bill say that our  way of life has it's advantages for all? Why not let them all in. Bill addressed these questions in a Grapevine article that was later reprinted into a pamphlet called, "Problems Other Than Alcohol". In it he states the following:

"Now there are certain things that AA cannot do for anybody, regardless of what our several desires may be."

"Our first duty, as a Society, is to insure our own survival. Therefore we have to avoid distractions and multipurpose activity. An AA group, as such, cannot take on all the personal problems of its members, let alone the problems of the whole world. Sobriety - freedom from alcohol - through the teaching and practice of the Twelve Steps, is the sole purpose of an AA group."

"Groups have repeatedly tried other activities and they have always failed. It has also been learned that there is no possible way to make non-alcoholics into AA members. We have to confine our membership to alcoholics and we have to confine our AA groups to a single purpose. If we don't stick to these principles, we shall almost surely collapse. And if we collapse we cannot help anyone."

"To illustrate, let's review some typical experiences. Years ago, we hoped to give AA membership to our families and certain nonalcoholic friends who had been greatly helpful. They had their problems, too, and we wanted them in our fold. Regretfully, we found that this was impossible."

"They couldn't make straight AA talks; nor, save a few exceptions, could they identify with new AA members. Hence they couldn't do continuous Twelfth Step work. Close to us as these good folks were, we had to deny them membership. We could only welcome them at our open meetings. That's the problem with open membership. There is no identification."

As our book states on page 18: 
"But the ex-problem drinker who has found this solution, who is properly armed with facts about himself, can generally win the entire confidence of another alcoholic in a few hours. Until such an understanding is reached, little or nothing can be accomplished."

"The problem is that they can't reach into our alcoholic world and make us believe they understand us and we can't hold drunken misery and death over their heads to entice them into practical application of our spiritual principles. It is a very inefficient system of mutual aid when none of the important motivational factors are shared."

"The real tragedy of the situation is that only the alcoholics die. Why are they dying? They are dying because the aren't doing anything."

"The first three chapters of our book and the Doctor's Opinion are summarized on page 43 as follows:

"Once more: The alcoholic at certain times has no effective mental defense against the first drink. Except in a few rare
cases, neither he nor any other human being can provide such a defense. His defense must come from a Higher Power."

"That's what the promised spiritual awakening is for. It is the only thing ever in recorded history to reliably fix real alcoholics. It worked and kept working until it generally fell out of favor within the fellowship. How did this happen you ask? This slippery slope began in the mid-seventies with the proliferation of clinical treatment options for alcoholism and many of the less severe emotional dysfunctions.

"An alcoholic algebra developed where if you drink at all and it causes you problems you are a problem drinker and that's as good as alcoholic in a fellowship where all you need is a desire to stop drinking. They sent them in droves. Rehabs, courts, mental heath facilities, probation departments, concerned wives and parents, employers and many others sent us drinkers of all kinds and descriptions who were under the impression that they were alcoholics."

"Some members I know personally stated that they were told by various outside agencies that they didn't have to be alcoholics to attend meetings or become members under the only requirement is a desire to stop drinking clause. So we had a situation where outside agencies sent us their clients who erroneously informed us as to our traditions, and we welcomed them."

"We welcomed them because AA worked and these people deserved to experience the same benefits as the existing membership had. The problem occurred when these less-hopeless drinkers could not identify with the deadly drinking patterns described by the real alcoholics and opted out of working various parts of the program because they didn't seem necessary to them."

"Turned out they were right. Non-alcoholic drinkers learned to their satisfaction just what Bill had written on page 39:

"That may be true of certain nonalcoholic people who, though drinking foolishly and heavily at the present time, are able to stop or moderate, because their brains and bodies have not been damaged as ours were. But the actual or potential alcoholic, with hardly an exception, will be absolutely unable to stop drinking on the basis of self-knowledge."

"This is a point we wish to emphasize and re-emphasize, to smash home upon our alcoholic readers as it has been revealed to us out of bitter experience."

"Well, they learned the first part anyway. That second part where self-knowledge wouldn't fix the alcoholic problem, seemed to escape them. At least that is the impression that is conveyed by what they say at the meetings. I just don't drink and go to meetings is a program of will power and self knowledge."

"Nothing else. The idea that I have frequently heard that "you can stay sober on Step One for the rest of your life and the other steps are for straightening out your life is also based solely on self-knowledge as the cure."

"The next time you have a headache see if goes away by telling yourself you have a headache. Sounds kind of ridiculous doesn't it? Why would it be any different with alcoholism? That's a program that will only work on drinkers who are not alcoholic by definition. When we allow them membership and they share their legitimate experience of not drinking and not working the program, they cannot help the real alcoholic who is the only one we are supposed to be concerned about.

Unknown

SOBRIETY NEWS is published monthly, and is usually available on the website the Tuesday night before the first Thursday of each month, so paper copies can be distributed to Reps at the Intergroup meeting. You can locate this newsletter, as well as lots of other stuff that would interest members of groups belonging to the Harrisburg Area Intergroup, at http://www.aaharrisburg.org