It took me a long time to accept the fact that the Lord's Prayer is said after meetings. I understand peoples objections to this ritual. Fact is, however, it's just a tradition that dates back to the founding of AA in 1935. I learned to live with it as time went on because of this historical perspective.

I agree that the courts shouldn't force people to attend AA. There are many people who are in AA "on paper" who might not be alcoholics. It doesn't take much to blow a .08 (the legal limit here in Michigan), and all you have to do is get stopped once by the police to get court ordered to AA. I agree that the program should be a program of attraction not promotion.

Fifteen years or so ago, there weren't as many people who were court ordered, but there are meetings now I chair where a majority of people are court ordered; it sometimes takes me virtually the entire meeting to sign all the court slips. In addition to being forced to go to AA, the fines, urine drops, counseling etc. that the courts order is prejudicial to folks who are lower-middle class, or perhaps without work. If you've got money folks can jump through the hoops much more easily that those "have nots." The "have nots" sometimes have to go to jail simply because they can't afford the costs associated with complying with the terms of their probation. All in all, it's a messed up system...Seeing what people have to go through with DUIs is added incentive for me to stay stopped one day at a time.