The Grenfell obscenity

Although I’ve seen Grenfell Tower many times, this evening was the first time I’d seen it since the fire. I did wonder whether I should post this. It’s profoundly shocking and the charred remains of uncountable unidentified people are still inside.
 
But should those of us who aren’t connected to this bit of London and who aren’t missing someone who might have died here be ‘protected’ from it? Some people have no choice. Thousands pass it every day. Neighbours - those most likely among us all to be grieving - have to see it every time they look out of their window. Some people recreate how those deaths might have been in nightmares each time they manage to get to sleep. Today a GP reported that survivors still hear screaming.
 
The missing can’t be named as dead until the police and coroners are absolutely certain who they are, so families and friends who are hoping against hope that the people they love were just away for a bit are in a living purgatory. And who knows who was sofa-surfing in the 23 flats (out of 129) from which the police have found no survivor to ask for information? Identification is likely to take until the end of the year and the public inquiry will take longer. I try to imagine what it must be like to live in this limbo of fear and strung-out hope and I hit a barrier I can’t cross. It is much, much worse than that.

So I’m not sure my sensitivities about what separates acceptable or tasteful from ghoulish or intrusive are worth anything at all - the only people with a right to look away are those affected, and they can't.

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