The Ethical Society of Boston

ESB Supports the Boston Book Festival

by Andrea Perrault

This year, the Ethical Society of Boston’s Program committee is promoting a new and
different activity to engage members in a larger, community-wide effort to read and discuss current fiction. Pulitzer Prize-winning author Richard Russo is part of the Boston Book Festival‘s “One City, One Story” effort. Russo’s short story “The Whore’s Child” will be widely distributed and promoted throughout the Boston area, and a discussion about it with the author will be featured at the festival on October 15th.

ESB will promote and distribute copies of the story, encouraging members and friends to read it and attend the BBF session. We may also choose a time before or after a Sunday program to host our own discussion about the story. Below is a passage about the themes of Russo’s work that highlight its connection to issues we care about at ESB.

“Richard Russo is one of American literature’s foremost chroniclers of small-town life, making him a contemporary heir to the likes of Sinclair Lewis and Sherwood Anderson. His novels are set in fading industrial towns throughout the northeastern United States, and the towns are delineated so precisely that they almost become characters in their own right. Russo pays keen attention to the socioeconomic divisions that structure small-town life, the invisible but palpable lines that determine where people live,
work, study, eat, drink. One of his recurring themes is the way that the decline of the factory town, as it succumbs to the brutal realities of globalization, affects the lives of its citizens who would otherwise be resistant to change. Though the settings and themes of his novels change — academic life in rural Pennsylvania in Straight Man, a tannery that poisons the local river in Bridge of Sighs — Russo has said, ‘Really, what I am writing about in all of these is, class and work.’”

For a fuller description of Russo’s work, use this link:
For more information about the Boston Book Festival, go to

Sean Faircloth, Executive Director, 

Mr. Faircloth will present a specific plan to return America to its secular roots.

Music:  Tamar Grader, Piano

Dr. Gia Elise Barboza, Assistant Professor of African-American Studies and and Health Science,

Existing definitions of trauma are too narrow and therefore overlook the multiple stressors that youth living in adverse environments face on a daily basis. In this talk, Professor Barboza argues that trauma should be broadly defined, and concludes with a discussion of how to address trauma through a comprehensive youth development program to build on youth’s resilience in a way that leads to recovery.

Music:  Key Change – accapella group from Harvard

Senator Eldridge has been cited by the organization Free Speech for People as a leader in Massachusetts who has developed legislation at the state level on corporate contributions to political campaigns. His is a voice for ethics in politics. Sign up for our e-mails or check the website for confirmation.

Music:  Fanyue Donn, Piano

Kevin Doyle, President of Green Economy and Co-Chair of the Workforce Development Committee of the

Thousands of people throughout New England want to align their spiritual, social, and ecological values with the work they do every day in their professional careers. But is the promise of a “green economy” more hype than hope? Join us as we explore progress and pitfalls in recent efforts to grow good, green jobs for all.