In the life of each AA member, there still lurks a tyrant.
His name is alcohol. He is cunning, ruthless.
And his weapons are misery, insanity, and death.
No matter how long we may be sober,
he always stands at each man's elbow,
ever watchful of an opportunity to resume his destruction.
Like an agent of the Gestapo,
he ever threatens each AA citizen
with torture or extinction.
Unless, of course, the AA citizen is willing to live
unselfishly, often placing the welfare of AA as a whole
ahead of his own personal plans and ambitions.
- Bill W., July 1946.
Alcohol -- cunning, baffling, powerful!
B A R = Beware Alcoholic Ruin.