Can A Twelve Step Program Heal America's Social Divisions?

We're happy to have some great new contributors at Townsquare Media Tuscaloosa, like Mr. Mike McKenzie.

Mike always has an interesting take on what's happening right now.

OK, Mike, what say you?

There’s something I’ve been thinking about lately.

What if this country needed a 12-Step program?

Not for alcohol. Not for drugs. Not for gambling, food, or behavior.

But for division.

Because if you look at the first step in most Twelve-Step programs, it reads something like this:

We admitted we were powerless… and that our lives had become unmanageable.

Tell me that doesn’t sound familiar.

We’ve Become Powerless to What Divides Us. We are addicted to outrage. Addicted to being right. Addicted to proving the other side wrong. And it’s made our lives and our nation unmanageable.

Turn on the TV. Scroll your phone. Listen to the way we talk to each other now. We’ve let the things that divide us overpower the things that should unite us.

Walk into an open recovery meeting sometime. You’ll see something remarkable. An upper-middle-class soccer mom sitting next to a kid covered in death metal tattoos. A financial advisor sharing a folding chair with a grocery store stock clerk, a retired veteran, a college student, a grandmother, and a mechanic. No one asks about income. No one checks voting records. No one cares about social status. Because they are there for one purpose:

To stay sober.

Their differences become irrelevant.

And here’s the beautiful twist. That death-metal kid with the tattoos? He might be the sponsor guiding the financial advisor. He might have the experience, the humility, the wisdom that saves that man’s life. In that room, ego dies. Hierarchy disappears. Common purpose wins.

What if we admitted that maybe we’re powerless over the noise? What if we acknowledged that our national life feels unmanageable? What if we sat down, not to win, but to recover?

Recovery requires humility. It requires listening. It requires admitting, “I might not have all the answers.” And it requires seeing the person across from you as a human being, not a category.

Most Twelve-Step programs hold designated open meetings.

Anyone can attend.

You don’t have to be dependent on a substance. You don’t have to be crippled by behavior.

You can simply observe. Sit quietly. Listen. And watch how people with vast differences: speak respectfully, support one another, share hard truths, and walk out better than they walked in. Not because they agree on everything. But because they agree on one thing that matters more.

We are a divided nation. And division, left untreated, becomes its own addiction. Maybe what we need isn’t louder arguments. Maybe what we need is humility, accountability, shared purpose, and the understanding that the person across from you might have something you need.

That’s what recovery rooms understand. They know the goal isn’t to win. The goal is to heal.

Late at night, when things get quiet, I think about that. Maybe what this country needs isn’t another debate.

Maybe it needs an open recovery meeting.

See you somewhere east of midnight.