Frank Natter's speech/reading at the Grenfell Silent March for Justice, 14th May 2019:
We walk in silence out of respect. We walk in silence because we are mourning. We walk in silence because even if we didn’t know someone who died directly, someone who lost their world could be standing next to us. We walk in silence because words so often offend. We walk in silence because to speak is to vent and to vent is to rage. We walk in silence because if we spoke, our throats would burn. We walk in silence because otherwise our fists would quickly come to talk too. We walk in silence because our muted presence should scare those responsible. We walk in silence because we cannot say a word that the events of the 14th June don’t speak for us. We walk in silence because we carry the weight of history and the burden is easier in quiet. We walk in silence because it pains those who wish to speak for us. We walk in silence because if we even whispered about what justice looks like in totality, the streets would stir with revolt. We walk in silence because it is stealthy. We walk in silence because we are waiting to be done right by. The silence has an end point. The silence is not there to comfort the powerful, it is to soothe those living with hell.
The silence speaks for itself.
Respect what it says. Don’t speak over it.
Grenfell doesn’t need attention for attention’s sake. We do not need to put Grenfell in the public consciousness. It is there. Indelibly. Like it is for all of us. We can still see it. So much of the country can. As can the world. We need real and substantive change because of it. And that’s why we are here, because we owe it to those who we lost and those who survived.
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