Most AA meetings, at the time, were very contentious regarding what was an outside topic, so that particular animosity carried over to many of the addicts that mingled with alcoholics.

But despite the turmoil of that time, I witnessed one of the greatest examples of inclusivity that I’ve ever seen. One night a guy came in from the “Fat Boy” program at the Naval Hospital, at Miramar. Simply put, if he didn’t lose weight then he was out of the Navy.

He said that he was a happy member of Overeaters Anonymous, but he really needed a men’s meeting. He said that if we’d let him into the meeting, he promised not to mention food. Dennis said, “Look man, if you want to talk about Twinkies, that’s your business, and we’re cool with it.” He then rubbed his slightly rotund belly and said, “But many of us may be able to relate, but if you want to share about why you need to get relief, then you’ll relate to all of us, and then we’ll all be in the same life-raft.”

In the midst of all the controversy, and the days of the Alcoholic-Addict and the Addict-Alcoholic, one man chose to reach into his heart instead of defending his territory. I eventually left that meeting, because I felt that I was inhibiting the junkies, and I was upset when a pot head was laughed out of the meeting. After over 2 decades in AA, I have damn near turned my back on The Fellowship due to the latest level of controversy over pain meds. I watched alcoholic after alcoholic succumb to the cunning, baffling, and powerfully insidious nature of pain pills, and mostly out of ignorance and cockiness.

The NA today is more mature, and just like in AA where us skid-row bums felt that we were the elite, with our assumed lower bottoms, I still see a slight status-enhancing bravado from some of the junkies. However, NA has almost no dissension these days, and many old-timers who have abandoned the AA life-boat, either partially or fully have found a welcome home.