Charles Halpern - Making Waves and Riding the Currents: Activism and the Practice of Wisdom

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MAKING WAVES AND RIDING THE CURRENTS

MAKING WAVES AND RIDING THE CURRENTS

Activism and the Practice of Wisdom

CHARLES HALPERN

BERRETT-KOEHLER PUBLISHERS, INC.
San Francisco
a BK Currents book

Making Waves and Riding the Currents

Copyright 2008 by Charles Halpern
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law. For permission requests, write to the publisher, addressed Attention: Permissions Coordinator, at the address below.

Berrett-Koehler Publishers, Inc.
235 Montgomery Street, Suite 650
San Francisco, California 94104-2916
Tel: (415) 288-0260, Fax: (415) 362-2512
www.bkconnection.com

Ordering information for print editions
Quantity sales. Special discounts are available on quantity purchases by corporations, associations, and others. For details, contact the Special Sales Department at the Berrett-Koehler address above.
Individual sales. Berrett-Koehler publications are available through most bookstores. They can also be ordered directly from Berrett-Koehler: Tel: (800) 929-2929; Fax: (802) 864-7626; www.bkconnection.com
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Berrett-Koehler and the BK logo are registered trademarks of Berrett-Koehler Publishers, Inc.

Cataloging-in-Publication Data are available from the Library of Congress.

First Edition
Hardcover print edition ISBN 978-1-57675-442-9
PDF e-book ISBN 978-1-57675-546-4
IDPF ISBN 978-1-60994-414-8

2007-1

Interior design: Gopa & Ted2, Inc. Canoe icon: Jon Friedman. Copy editor: Sandra Beris.
Indexer: Kay Banning. Production: Linda Jupiter, Jupiter Productions. Proofreader:
Henrietta Bensussen. Cover design: Mayapriya Long, Bookwrights. Cover image: Canoe in the Rapids by Winslow Homer, Francis G. Mayer/Corbis.

FOR SUSAN

AUTHORS STATEMENT

THE EVENTS in this book are primarily drawn from memory. For public eventsthe creation of a new organization or filing a lawsuitI have consulted available official documents. For my own reflections and private interactions, I have relied on memory, buttressed by personal notes and check-ins with friends. Needless to say, all quoted conversations are reconstructed from memory, not from transcriptions.

FOREWORD BY HIS HOLINESS THE DALAI LAMA

IMET CHARLES HALPERN when, as president of the Nathan Cum-mings Foundation, he supported a rich and productive dialogue between prominent Tibetans here in Dharamsala and representatives of the world Jewish community. Such imaginative initiatives are typical of a life dedicated to positive social change.

In this new book, Making Waves and Riding the Currents, he shows the importance of fostering basic human values like compassion in our relations with others and of working to generate inner peace. If we are able to do this, we will make our lives and our work meaningful, and ultimately contribute to the welfare of all living beings.

FOREWORD BY ROBERT B. REICH

IF YOURE LIKE most people, youre working harder than ever before. Thats mainly because the economy has become so competitive that all customers, clients, and investors have many other options. Unless you work hard to attract and keep them, theyll leave for better deals elsewhere. Even if youre a professional or working in the nonprofit sector, your organization is likely to be feeling more competitive heat. Lawyers, journalists, and doctors used to be in business to serve the public; nowadays, their organizations are in business to make money, and the competition is intense. Philanthropies, universities, museums, and concert halls used to be dedicated to the poor, to learning, or to artistry. Now theyre in competitive races for resources and attendees. As a consumer or investor, all this new competition is giving you more for your money. But as a person trying to make a living while finding meaning in ones work and life, its wreaking havoc.

If youre also trying to be an agent of changea public official, organization leader, or social entrepreneur seeking a fairer or healthier societyyour job is doubly difficult. Market forces are allied against you. When jobs are so insecure and wages so unstable, the public is less willing to take chances on ideas that may sound good in theory but could rock the boat even more. When the private sector offers huge monetary rewards to financial entrepreneurs who merely rearrange the pieces of the pie, talented young people are more likely to seek law degrees or M.B.A.s that lead to prestigious law firms and financial powerhouses than to accept jobs that help redistribute the pie away from the very rich. When the economy allows investors to reap fortunes from hedge funds and private-equity partnerships, theres less money for or interest in changing the economic order.

So how is one to proceed? In the following pages, Charles Halpern offers a way forward. As you will see, Halperns life has been dedicated to positive social changeto comforting the afflicted and afflicting the comfortable. As a founder of the Center for Law and Social Policy, the first public interest law firm in the nation; as dean of City University of New York Law School, among the first public interest law schools; and then as president of the Nathan Cummings Foundation, itself dedicated to making the world a better and more humane place, Halpern has collected his share of stars and scars. But what is likely to make this book particularly useful to youwhether you are seeking a more just society or are merely seeking to navigate the difficult currents of a career is Halperns lifetime journey toward finding a place within himself that has allowed him to bear these pressures while simultaneously maintaining his humanity.

As one who has known Charlie Halpern for many years and watched with admiration all that he has accomplished, and the strugglesboth professional and personalin which he has engaged, I can attest to the truth of this story. As one who has had his own share of stars and scars, I can attest to its importance. There is no way for a human being to endure the challenges of social leadership, let alone manage the tumult of a job and a family in this age of supercapitalism, as I have called it, without having the means of discovering and holding on to a part of yourself that remains invulnerable. The more we are able to discover and hold on to this core, the easier our life journey will be. Halpern terms this the practice of wisdom.

Halperns personal journey illuminates and integrates two overarching social movements that have occupied what is commonly referred to as the Left over the last forty years. One has been focused on the potential for a more just society and world. This movement began with the goal of achieving civil rights for African Americans and was extended to ending the Vietnam War, giving women equal rights, expanding opportunities for the poor or others who have been socially excluded, honoring human rights at home and abroad, and achieving a cleaner and safer environment.

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