Brian Tranmer
02683-017
Post Office Box 350
Beaver, WV 25813
10/23/96
Louv brother Carl,
I know that it's been a little while since I returned something for the
last letter you sent me but sometimes I'm just not in the letter writing mood plus there's
not much new to tell you anyway. It's still the same old fuckery going on here, it
seems like everytime the guards change shifts (the police change every quarter so we get a
few new assholes every three months) we have to go through a bunch of extra shit until we
break them in or else we just get used to them and learn how to work around the
assholes. It's funny how people learn to adapt to most any situation and one thing
that's good about suffering is that it forces people to stand together that would be
hating each other under normal circumstances. I also like to believe the old cliche
that "Suffering builds character." Sometimes I do wonder though if people
that suffer get any reward in the long run because you see people all over the earth
suffering and they never get any relief. Who knows maybe they get some kind of
blessing that we can't see but like you said "God is with those with the biggest
armies or the most money." Of course there has to be suffering to change wrongs
that are being done and when you're suffering for a cause or something you believe in it
can give you a certain pride and dignity that is a blessing in itself. The
difference between people who know what they're suffering for and people who don't are
like night and day, people that go into suffering sacrificing and giving up small
pleasures to make things better (or a hope of making things better) in the long run get a
self worth and self respect that is like no other. It's a feeling that a person gets
when they know that they might have some effect on the future of or on the betterment of
the human race. It's this spirit or desire to change things that has made man
progress this far and have made man willing to give up their lives if necessary for
something they believe in. So my point is that maybe the blessing that one gets for
suffering is the feeling of satisfaction or self worth that a person feels or maybe
suffering is something that is necessary to make man learn how to live together in peace
and how to better themselves in the long run. Maybe that's why the Bible says that
we should "Bear our suffering with joy," maybe our little minds can't comprehend
the blessing that we get because we can't see the big picture of how mankind benefits
through our suffering.
Brother Jeffery wrote me a letter and sent me a few old pictures the
other day which was very nice of him to take the time to do. However, some of the
thanks goes to you because he said that it was through your letters (or maybe it was
through the "Internet computer system" because he also said something about
that) that he learned that I wanted some old pictures. I wrote him back and thanked
him and I also told him what I thought led to the brothers' down fall and why I feel that
they haven't been able to resurrect anything. Even though I was young I saw how
things progressed, as I'm sure you know my father was one of the first white brothers in
Jamaica. I knew brother Ivy, I lived at every house (except the one right before his
death) that "Niah Keith" (with brother Keith and his family) ever lived at in
Jamaica, his children were like brothers and sisters to me. I lived with brother
Wally, Brother Cootman (that was sister Phyllis's father) and shit I even lived at brother
Dohgie's (Laurenton Dickens's) house (me being the only white person there) in Bull Bay
for about four months (I was about 9 years old at the time) one time while my parents were
in America. I lived with my family in America at all the places (I'm sure that you
remember that my family lived up in Maine) where they made the moves and I was at all
three of (the ranch, the Canal and Maine) the big busts and I went to a juvenile (the
Canal and Maine) home on two of them. I'm just stating all of this to say that I was
there from the beginning (the beginning meaning when the white brothers first went to
Jamaica) so I saw how things manifested through time. As I told brother Jeffery in
my letter to him, the thing that the brothers had in the beginning that drew them
together, the thing that made them able to work together and accomplish so much in such a
short time was the louv and unity they had for each other in the beginning. After a
while through the hunger for power and greed certain ones set themselves up on a pedestal
(as big Bob would say "The Elderberries") and started to think that they were
some how more holy than their brother. It shifted from equality to some kind of a
pecking order where instead of looking out for their brothers & sisters best interest
all they could do is play politics and think they were better than other people.
Really I think it's a disgrace how the brothers ended up hating each other, no wonder not
even their own children wanted to live that kind of life style. What ever you do you
can't leave out the youth because young people are the future so you have to teach them
what you know. That's another thing that the brothers did wrong, with all those big
smart Coptic Priests around it's funny how they didn't teach the children shit, they
should have at least taught us how to drive those boats, if they would have maybe I
wouldn't be here right now. :-) As I said the only thing that the brothers had at
one time that made them different from the rest of the world was the louv (that's the
spirit that, if used in the right frame of mind, ganja enhances) so when they lost that
for each other they couldn't set an example for or draw anyone. For the brothers to
ever come together in a spirit again they have to put aside all the bad thought and hatred
that they carry for each other. How did the old saying go? "Think right
love and pray and you'll live in rejoicing every day." Louv is what the world
is lacking and that's the key. Fighting for the freedom of ganja is good but if you
can't display and give people the understanding of the frame of mind that you're supposed
to be in when you smoke it then people might get the wrong concept (especially young
people) of the spirit that it induces and go on to abuse it just like most everyone else
does. Ganja is a medicine it can be easily abused. I believe that in the
beginning the brothers had the spirit that the herb enhances but as time went on they lost
that spirit and ganja became the focal point (I know that I abused it) and that's when
they started to abuse it. It doesn't do any good to point the finger at anybody
because we all make mistakes in life, (what was the old saying, "We all sin and fall
short of the glory of God") so the idea is to lift each other and try not to make
those same mistakes again. Maybe one day after the brothers get beat hard enough
they'll forget about the bad feelings that they carry for each other and come together and
have some fun. I'm not going to hold my breath though. :-(
One Louv!!
From the dungeons of babilon your friend & brother always, Brian