Where is the 13th Tradition?

"Anonymity is the spiritual foundation of all our traditions, ever reminding us to place principles before personalities."  Tradition Twelve, which is the Twelfth Tradition.  It comes immediately after the Eleventh Tradition but because it's the last Tradition there are no Traditions to follow it.  It is, therefore, the Concluding Tradition.  You may ask: "Because it finished the Traditions should we assume that it's the most important Tradition?"

Don't assume anything. 

Anonymity -  Without any name acknowledged of a person responsible.

Many think (if by "many" you mean "I") that this Tradition is more important for newcomers than for old-timers.  After a while we become less concerned about what other people think of us.  I was perfectly fine rolling in at 3 AM with Sabbath cranking out of my open car windows, open whatever the weather because I needed to stay awake, and then parking either halfway up the front yard or 6 feet from the curb, but god forbid anyone should find out I had a drinking problem!   "Clearly every A.A. member's name - and story, too - had to be confidential, if he wished.  This was our first lesson in the practical application of anonymity."

Many others think (etc, etc, etc) that it's more important to protect The Fellowship than to protect the individual.  If someone who is known to the public credits A.A. for his/her sobriety and then relapses in a public way we're worried that this might give someone pondering our Fellowship an excuse to stay away.  "We simply couldn't afford to take the chance of letting self-appointed members present themselves as messiahs representing A.A. before the whole public.  If even one publicly got drunk, or was lured into using A.A.'s name for his own purposes, the damage might be irreparable."

Equality: The same in all respects.  (Ed. Note: Beautiful.  Short and simple.  No extra words, no wasted motion.)

"Moved  by the spirit of anonymity, we try to give up our natural desires for personal distinction as A. A. members both among fellow alcoholics and before the general public."

I'm not any more important than anyone else.

OUCH.