Effective Collaborative Legislation

We are regularly speaking towards government hypocrisy and incompetency because it is so wide spread and ever present. That said from time to time (albeit most infrequently) a particular governmental entity and typically at the local level will take some forward thinking action that is bold and ahead of its time, which can well subject it to ridicule, but it moves forward forcefully prepared to accept the “slings and arrows of outrageous fortune.” Our goal today is to point out to said actions and provide appropriate and measured praise upon them.

In the early sixties, many grape growers and wine producers from various small towns across a swath of the Southern Rhone region in France selfishly banded together to do whatever was necessary to protect their fields of grapes from an airborne risk that they believed could well significantly cripple their production and in fact entire industry.

So they went to the various local governments and demanded a collective and collaborative effort and response to eliminate this airborne risk to the grapes. Heeding the call, these local governments quickly joined forces to initiate joint legislation that to this day has protected the grapes, the vineyards, and the Southern Rhone wine industry.

This should have been a template for the closely coordinated efforts that all too frequently elude the grasp of local governments that too often fall victim to local pettiness which precludes such a collaborative effort, but it was not and in fact despite its success remains the only collaborative piece of legislation to protect the industry that has ever been enacted.

That is indeed a striking question given the airborne threat that it has effectively eliminated.

What was this airborne threat that was so significant that demanded such a spirit of cooperation?

While many might conjecture it to be locusts or some comparable insect infestation they would be mistaken thinking way too small, both literally and figuratively.

No the airborne threat that was of such a magnitude that caused this selfless spirit of cooperation was a joint ordinance making it illegal for any flying saucer to land in any vineyard. Yes and too insert even more teeth to the legislation, they provided that any flying saucer that violated this collective audience would be subject to forfeiture and confiscation by the government.

In retrospect one may say what they think about all of this, but in truth one can neither deny nor challenge the positive impact the legislation has had. From the day of enactment up to and including the present now almost sixty years later said legislation has so sent waves of fear throughout the known universe that not a single incident of a flying saucer has ever been reported throughout the area.

Very little other legislation try as it might can ever even come close to claiming such a positive outcome across the board impact, which this author suspects is exactly what one would have if the legislation were ever violated, impact that is.