Hightower Keynote for Chesapeake Conference" 

SALISBURY, MD---Best-selling author, nationally-syndicated talk show host and self-proscribed progressive agitator Jim Hightower is the keynote speaker for the Salisbury State University conference, "Chesapeake Bay in the 21st Century," held on campus October 16-21.

Hightower, frequently called "American’s most popular Populist" and author of There’s Nothing in the Middle of the Road But Yellow Stripes and Dead Armadillos, gives his presentation on Thursday, October 19, at 8 p.m. in SSU’s Holloway Hall Auditorium. Admission to all conference lectures and presentations, including Hightower’s talk, are free and open to the public.

In his most recent book, If the Gods Had Meant Us to Vote They Would Have Given Us Candidates: More Political Subversion from Jim Hightower, the former Texas agriculture commissioner uses his disarmingly folksy charm to skewer George W. Bush, Al Gore, America’s moneyed interests, the presidential selection process, corporate greed, the corruption of the political process by big money, the wage gap, globalization and much more.

Hightower has earned the enmity of the Powers That Be because he stands so forcefully for the Powers That Ought To Be--the workaday majority of Americans. With two nationally syndicated radio shows, including his famous "Hightower Radio" live from the "Chat & Chew," he gets the attention of grassroots Americans.

A progressive who is unafraid to speak out on the airwaves or anywhere else, Hightower also speaks his mind with a hearty dose of humor and anti-establishment fun. Hightower believes that the power and passion of America’s working class and poor folks must be tapped if the country is ever to move from greed to greatness.

Moving to Washington in the late 1960s, Hightower worked for the Congressional Research Service, served as a legislative aide to U.S. Senator Ralph Yarborough and founded a watchdog group to battle against the corporatization of farms and food. In 1976, Hightower returned to his home state to serve as editor of the biweekly newsmagazine, The Texas Observer. He then spent a decade in the boiling cauldron of Texas elective politics, including winning two adventurous terms as Texas agriculture commission (1983-1991), becoming a national leader for family farmers, sustainable agriculture, farm workers and pure food.

For more information about Hightower’s presentation, please call the SSU Public Relations Office at 410-543-6030. For details about the conference, please Dr. Jack Wennersten at 410-548-5395.