"Our common welfare should come first;  personal recovery depends upon A.A. unity."

	The unity of Alcoholics Anonymous is the most cherished quality our Society has. 
Our lives, the lives of all to come, depend squarely upon it.  We stay whole, or A.A. dies. 
Without unity, the heart of A.A. would cease to beat;  our world arteries would no longer
carry the life-giving grace of God.  God's gift to us would be spent aimlessly.  Back again
in their caves, alcoholics would reproach us and say, "What a great thing A.A. might have
been!"
	"Does this mean," some will anxiously ask, "that in A.A. the individual doesn't
count for much?  Is she, or he, to be dominated by the group and swallowed up in it?"
	We may certainly answer this question with a loud "No!"  We believe there isn't a
fellowship on earth which lavishes more devoted care upon its individual members;  surely
there is none which more jealously guards the individual's right to think, talk, and act as
they wish.  No A.A. can compel another to do anything;  nobody can be punished or
expelled.  Our Twelve Steps to recovery are suggestions;  the Twelve Traditions which
guarantee A.A.'s unity contain not a single "Don't."  They repeatedly say "We ought . . ."
but never "You must!"
	To many minds all this liberty for the individual spells sheer anarchy.  Every
newcomer, every friend who looks at A.A. for the first time is greatly puzzled.  They see
liberty verging on license, yet they recognize at once that A.A. has an irresistible strength
of purpose and action.  "How," they ask, "can such a crowd of anarchists function at all? 
How can they possibly place their common welfare first?  What in Heaven's name holds
them together?"
	Those who look closely soon have the key to this strange paradox.  The A.A.
member has to conform to the principles of recovery.  Each of our lives actually depends
upon obedience to spiritual principles.  If we deviate too far, the penalty is sure and swift; 
we sicken and die.  At first we go along because we must, but later we discover a way of
life we really want to live.  Moreover, we find we cannot keep this priceless gift unless we
give it away.  Neither the newly recovered alcoholic  nor anybody else can survive unless
each of us carries the A.A. message.  The moment this Twelfth Step work forms a group,
another discovery is made -- that most individuals cannot recover unless there is a group. 
Realization dawns that each of us is but a small part of a great whole;  that no personal
sacrifice is too great for preservation of the Fellowship.  Each one learns that the clamor
of desires and ambitions within must be silenced whenever these could damage the group. 
It becomes plain that the group must survive or the individual will not.
	So at the outset, how best to live and work together as groups became the prime
question.  In the world about us we saw personalities destroying whole peoples.  The
struggle for wealth, power, and prestige was tearing humanity apart as never before.  If
strong people were stalemated in the search for peace and harmony, what was to become
of our erratic band of alcoholics?  As we had once struggled and prayed for individual
recovery, just so earnestly did we commence to quest for the principles through which
A.A. itself might survive.  On anvils of experience, the structure of our Society was
hammered out.
	Countless times, in as many cities and hamlets, we reenacted the story of Eddie
Rickenbacker and his courageous company when their plane crashed in the Pacific.  Like
us, they had suddenly found themselves saved from death, but still floating upon a perilous
sea.  How well they saw that their common welfare came first.  None might become selfish
of water or bread.  Each needed to consider the others, and in abiding faith they knew they
must find their real strength.  And this they did find, in measure to transcend all the defects
of their frail craft, every test of uncertainty, pain fear, and despair, and even the death of
one.
	Thus has it been with A.A.  By faith and by works we have been able to build upon
the lessons of an incredible experience.  They live today in the Twelve Traditions of
Alcoholics Anonymous, which -- God willing -- shall sustain us in unity for so long as God
may need us.

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