If something fishy happens, practice non-violent resistance and just sit your little butt down right there in front of the machine until the police and or media comes.

If everyone who had something go wrong refused to leave until the problem was resolved, we would be able to tell how wide-spread the problem was, even if it was just from media reports of crazies who wouldn't leave the polling station.

Hey there

I'm pretty new to the boards, but I have more than 1.5 yrs clean and sober, have worked all the steps and have a sponsor and sponsees, and my life is GREAT (when it was a complete wreck - I am a new person!), so I thought I'd chime in.

Here is how my sponsor took me through the first step.

First, before he agreed to work with me, he asked me if I was really done living the way I had been living, had enough pain, willing to go to any length to get sober? I had to make the admission that (1) I could no longer go on living the way I was, and (2) I would do *anything* -- ANYthing - anyTHING, to get sober.

Then it was suggested to me that I do whatever my sponsor said to do, which included making 90 meetings in 90 days, and calling my sponsor every day. No problem there. I showed up at meetings and called the guy. OK.

Shortly after that, it was suggested to me that if any part of my life was unmanageable, then by definition my life was unmanageable. This made sense to me. I agreed. Next!

Next, my sponsor told me to go through the AA big book, from the doctors opinion to page 164, looking for the word "must." I was to write out the complete sentence where the word was found, numbering them so I knew how many "musts" I had found.

When I had found all the "musts" (and there are a lot of them!) I had completed step 1.

It worked for me Hope this helps someone.

As a gay parent this stuff makes me ill too.

But remember, although this battle may have been won the "war" is far from over!

You can leave the state, but the problem remains, so you might as well stay and save on moving expenses. It is no better up north - NY just ruled the same way, and did you hear about the lawsuits pending in MI? Against universities providing domestic partner benefits? Insane.

Don't be discouraged. You know, things had to get *really* ugly for black people before anything improved...

Some would say that the visible, undeniable violence against and hatred of blacks (e.g., children blown up, people beat by police on national TV) had to be shoved in people's faces before white people realized that their personal attitudes were contributing to these awful events.

This is one of the principles behind non-violent protest - the oppressed force the oppressor to show how ugly and horrible they are.

We're riding the same roller-coaster, but we know how it ends. Some people *will* get hurt along the way (unfortunately it will be us, that is the point we are at... we'll go broke when our partner gets sick and can't work and we can't insure them), but in the long run justice prevails. The young ones won't have to cover the same ground we are covering now.

Hang in there!!! At least we have the internet and don't have to feel as isolated as we would otherwise.

Peace,
Danni