According to his website, Jim Hightower is "a national radio commentator, writer, public speaker, and author," who "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." Right now, he's touring 41 cities in six weeks promoting his new book, Swim Against The Current: Even A Dead Fish Can Go With The Flow, which chronicles the stories of regular folks like you and me who are bucking the system and doing extraordinary progressive work thwarting the powers that be.
We met up with him at the beginning of his book tour, and he graciously agreed to an interview. He was able to put the issues facing Harrisonburg--over-development, loss of green space and small-farm agriculture, loss of culture in the face of big-box store homogenization--into a national context for us. Harrisonburg is Every-Town USA: unfortunately, what's happening to my hometown is happening everywhere. Growth, growth, growth seems to be the only way to define progress. We also presented him with a token of our appreciation: a six-pack of local Paper City Brewery's Ireland Parish Golden Ale, which he was very pleased about.
No sneak peaks of this interview, though--you'll have to wait for the finished documentary! But you can watch our footage of his talk at the Pioneer Valley Central Labor Council, AFL-CIO.
To learn more about Jim Hightower, or to see him speaking as part of his tour, check out his website.
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