Maybe you are that sheltered, and also that smart.
As for a Ronnie, I think I remember a little fella with some time that moved, I think, down south about 5 years ago. I also think he had a daughter, who what quite young then but probably a teen now.
You've never seen anything mean, evil, or distasteful (yet) relating to such a statement - good. I remember a Southern California Convention here about 9 years ago where a young feller "introduced" himself as an alcoholic as the one with the least clean time at the end of a main speaker meeting. The crowd of a couple thousand boo'd, hissed, and jeered when they heard that evil word spoken in a microphone at their convention, how dare he! Wonder where they established the value that the word "alcoholic" was wrong?
I was threatened with physical violence when I was new, hmmmm. I've heard quite a few people shot down or sarcastic comments thrown at them in meetings when the "s" word is used. I've also noted that few of them ever came back after being treated with such welcome when our members were only passing a "suggestion" along, maybe somewhat tactlessly.
These other suggestion you bring forth, there are no semi-incoherent paragraphs of jargon read at the beginning of a meeting that "suggests" - We are presented with a dilemma when members don't get a sponsor, work these steps, go to meetings, blah blah blah. This happens in their own time, besides, do you think that you are going to automatically be loaded if someone you don't know says the "s" (sober) word while their sharing? In nine months, have you experienced people say that after they called themselves "alcoholic" seventy-six times that POOF! somehow they were magically drunk?
AA lingo doesn't get people loaded, 10X as many addicts are clean in AA using that lingo every day - so the argument that it's a jinx doesn't fly. There is, however, an attitude of self-righteous and intolerance directly linked to feelings of inadequacy which can tarnish our image (the convention story). This is what I think of whey people talk of "blurring" our message.
aa
la
How did page 63 come across to ya?