Could it really take a 5,000-mile trip to create cooperation across the 1-mile expanse of the Mississippi River at Natchez and Vidalia?

Last week, Natchez and Vidalia leaders announced their intention to travel to Rotterdam in the Netherlands on a fact-finding mission.

Rotterdam is home to one of the largest ports in the world.

Traveling there at first glance seems like overkill.

We’ve urged leaders in Natchez, Adams County and Vidalia and Concordia Parish to sit down with one another to figure out how best to cooperate with one another on our soon-to-be dueling ports.

Natchez-Adams County has had a river port for decades. Vidalia has had one in the works for years, and it’s finally coming to fruition.

But so far, leadership teams of the two ports have not exactly been playing well together. They’ve not been playing poorly either; they’ve mostly ignored one another.

Unfortunately, in doing so they’re missing out on an opportunity to be an even bigger powerhouse on the river.

Rather than being two small ports, by combining forces, the two could work as one, much larger port.

The logic follows along the lines of two heads are better than one.

If being locked on an airplane for 10 or 12 hours helps local leaders understand and believe that, perhaps the cost of the plane tickets would be money well spent.

We’ve seen what can occur when we bicker with one another. Just imagine what might occur if both sides of the Mississippi River worked as one.