OPINION:
One of Italy’s foremost architects, Stefano Boeri, has offered up a possible solution for the government to fend off Islamic terror attacks — and it goes like this: Fewer cement barricades. More flower pots and trees.
Why? Because frankly, Boeri asserts, fighting terror doesn’t have to be aesthetically offensive.
It can still be — pretty.
His idea blossomed just two days after ISIS terrorists plowed a van into a crowd of tourists on one of Spain’s most heavily traveled streets, and just hours later, another driver smashed his vehicle into a group of pedestrians in Cambrils. In that second attack, five jumped from the car and began stabbing as many people as possible, ultimately killing a woman before they were shot by police.
But perish the idea that tighter borders, more abundant police presence or better military and law enforcement intelligence might prove the best way of fending off such types of terror attacks in the future.
On that, Boeri’s got the scoop.
“Terrorists want to lock us in our homes, hoping to force us to give up living in the collective places and public spaces of our cities,” he said, The Local reported.
And while traditional counterterror measures are good — this one is even better, he suggests: “We should respond with an accurate use of natural beauty and its symbolic value. … Instead of distorting the most vital and open spaces of our cities by filling them with concrete barriers and modular plastic security devices (or simple flower boxes), we should oppose the instinct of death brought by these bestial people with calm presence of plants — in particular, oaks.”
Oaks, unlike say, the average pine, are apparently imbued with anti-Islamic terror leaves. And once planted in giant pots and positioned properly in the public parks, would “protect the passage of pedestrians” and “minimize the risk of mass murder,” Boeri argued.
Ah yes, the anti-terror flower pot. Widely rumored; rarely seen.
But thanks to Boeri, the idea’s actually generating steam.
“It’s a way not to militarize our urban centers while making them greener,” said the mayor of Bari, Antonio Decaro, to The Local.
Hmm. Protective and pretty. What a concept. Fighting jihad the green way.
Now, if we could only come up with a way of beautifying the bloody bodies of those Islamic terror victims who oftentimes, to the consternation of those with higher-tuned aesthetic standards, lie so inconveniently in streets about Europe, we’d really have this whole counterterrorism thing in the wraps. Perhaps some strategically placed painted wood boxes are in order? The outside could be decorated to blend with nearby trees and shrubs; the inside, a roomy store-all into which victims could crawl to conceal their gaping bloody wounds. The key in the design, of course, would be the hinge mechanisms.
Oh well — plenty of time to think on it. With Europe and its sieve-like borders, chances are there will be scores of opportunities for test runs. In the meantime, as Boeri suggests, we can always run for the trees.
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