True Identity

Ned, a newcomer, came into our Monday morning meeting a couple of months ago and told us he wasn't sure he was in the right place because he didn't think he was an alcoholic. As usual that remark got a good laugh. As the group dug his story out of him, we learned that one of our county judges let him out of jail early on the condition that he attend as many meetings of Alcoholics Anonymous as he could. Ned had been in jail for getting drunk and beating his wife. It was not his first offense, nor the second. Sometimes, in his drunken rages, he would give his wife a rest and beat up on the kids. His little boy was five and the daughter was three.