Jim Hightower will be the keynote speaker in Fresno at a forum to be held on Saturday, October 1, addressing the topic of “Strengthening Our Voice: Bringing Valley Progressives Together.” This event will be held from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. at the Unitarian Universalist Church, 2672 E. Alluvial Ave., Clovis. Following Hightower’s address, there will be a facilitated dialogue laying the groundwork for more effective collaboration and a greater progressive voice in the Central Valley.
Hightower is a national radio commentator, writer, public speaker and author of Swim Against the Current: Even a Dead Fish Can Go with the Flow. He has spent three decades battling the Powers That Be on behalf of the Powers That Ought To Be—consumers, working families, environmentalists, small businesses and just-plain-folks.
Twice elected Texas Agriculture Commissioner, Hightower believes that the true political spectrum is not right to left but top to bottom, and he has become a leading national voice for the 80% of the public who no longer find themselves within shouting distance of the Washington and Wall Street powers at the top.
Hightower is a modern-day Johnny Appleseed, spreading the message of progressive populism all across the American grassroots. He broadcasts daily radio commentaries that are carried on more than 150 commercial and public stations, on the Web, on Armed Forces Radio and on Radio for Peace International. He also does a weekly video blog that is carried on many popular Web sites. 
Each month, he publishes a populist political newsletter, The Hightower Lowdown, which now has more than 135,000 subscribers and is the fastest growing political publication in America. The hard-hitting Lowdown has received both the Alternative Press Award and the Independent Press Association Award for best national newsletter. A popular public speaker who is fiery and funny, he is a populist road warrior who delivers more than 100 speeches a year to all kinds of groups.
He is a New York Times best-selling author and has written seven books including Thieves in High Places: They’ve Stolen Our Country and It’s Time To Take It Back, If the Gods Had Meant Us To Vote They Would Have Given Us Candidates and There’s Nothing in the Middle of the Road but Yellow Stripes and Dead Armadillos.
Hightower frequently appears on television and radio programs, bringing a hard-hitting populist viewpoint that rarely gets into the mass media. In addition, he works closely with the alternative media, and in all of his work he keeps his ever-ready Texas humor upfront, practicing the credo of an old Yugoslavian proverb: “You can fight the gods and still have fun.”
Hightower was raised in Denison, Texas, in a family of small business people, tenant farmers and working folks. A graduate of the University of North Texas, he worked in Washington as a legislative aide to Sen. Ralph Yarborough of Texas; he then co-founded the Agribusiness Accountability Project, a public interest project that focused on corporate power in the food economy; and he was national coordinator of the 1976 Fred Harris for President campaign.
Hightower then returned to his home state, where he became editor of the feisty biweekly, The Texas Observer. He served as director of the Texas Consumer Association before running for statewide office and being elected to two terms as Texas Agriculture Commissioner (1983–1991).
During the 1990s, Hightower became known as “America’s most popular populist,” developing his radio commentaries, hosting two radio talk shows, writing books, launching his newsletter, giving fiery speeches coast to coast and otherwise speaking out for the American majority that’s being locked out economically and politically by the elites. As political columnist Molly Ivins said, “If Will Rogers and Mother Jones had a baby, Jim Hightower would be that rambunctious child—mad as hell, with a sense of humor.”
Tickets to the October 1 event are required and are available for a suggested donation of $10. For more information, contact Connie Peterson at c.peterson8784@sbcglobal.net.
