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Speaker: James C. Benton Over the past half-century, one of America‘s oldest industries - textiles and apparel - has seen a near-total collapse, commensurate with the rapid rise of global trade in this sector. Thanks to global trade, deindustrialization, and automation, current employment in the domestic industry is less than one-tenth of its high levels in the 1970s. Drawing from his award-winning work, Fraying Fabric: How Trade Policy and Industrial Decline Transformed America (University of Illinois Press, 2022), historian James Benton (Georgetown University) will explain the root causes behind this industry‘s disappearance, which has contributed significantly to the national political and economic shifts of the last 50 years. The discussion will include examples of contemporary efforts to sustain this historic industry, even as it faces new threats of disruption from tariffs and global "fast fashion" sellers like Temu and Shein. James C. Benton is director of the Race and Economic Empowerment Project at the Kalmanovitz Initiative for Labor and the Working Poor at Georgetown University. This position links KI and Georgetown students with community activists and organizations combating inequality in Washington, D.C. His community work includes serving on the board of directors of DC Jobs with Justice. He is a co-designer of Creating an Equitable City, a series of experiential learning courses taught at Georgetown’s Capitol Applied Learning Lab focusing on inequality in Washington. He is also the author of Fraying Fabric, which traces U.S. trade policy and political shifts in the postwar era amid the decline of the American textile and apparel industries. Host Village: Northwest Neighbors Village Limited to 100. Registration is required by April 1st. Zoom link will be sent to registrants the day before.

Speaker: Gary Thompson Our neighborhoods were once filled with thousands of Union troops in and around the Civil War Defenses of Washington, and for a few days in July 11-12, 1864, attacking Rebel troops as well. This presentation, rich with maps and photos, will explain what happened here during the Civil War, with a particular focus on the stretch of fortifications from Fort Reno over to Fort Totten. Gary Thompson is a co-founder and the current President of the non-profit Alliance to Preserve the Civil War Defenses of Washington. He is an avid student of the defenses, a dynamic speaker on the topic, and also a reenactor of Maj. Gen. Lew Wallace, “Savior of Washington” from the Battle of Monocacy. Gary has lived in Chevy Chase DC for over 30 years, 8 years on the ANC, and when he doesn’t have his nose in a Civil War history book, either practices law or runs in Rock Creek Park. Gary is also Chair of the DC Board of Elections. Host Village: Northwest Neighbors Village Limited to 100. Registration is required by April 3rd. Zoom link will be sent to registrants the day before.

Chevy Chase At Home Speaker Series: Lessons Learned and Adventures on the Appalachian Trail with Gary Windham In 2022, Gary Windham fulfilled a lifelong goal of hiking the entire 2,200-mile-long Appalachian Trail. In his presentation, Gary will highlight the planning and effort that went into the challenge, along with trail stories, anecdotes, and lessons learned. He‘ll include photos of people and places along the way and some comments about what it was like to spend six months, usually completely alone in the woods in freezing and scorching conditions, snow, ice and rainstorms, eating out of a camp pot and sleeping on the ground. While he says the hike wasn‘t always fun, he assures us that this presentation will be! Gary Windam claims that he is not a spy, but after working for the National Security Agency for 42 years, some people wonder. Gary is a 72-year-old retiree from a 42-year career as an Electrical Engineer in the US Department of Defense. He spent fourteen years building integrated circuits for the NSA. In 1999, he switched gears and was assigned to a technical liaison assignment near Munich, Germany. He was later assigned to the Pentagon in Information Assurance, and then to Ft. Meade to work in Signals Intelligence. He finished his career as a Technical Director leveraging and promoting biometric technology to help 17 government agencies find foreign terrorists. Since retiring in 2016, he spends his time exercising, hiking, biking and motorcycling, but more importantly, trying to keep his wife, Roberta sane as she serves as the Carroll County Administrator.

This conversation with Howard Gleckman will examine the rapidly changing landscape of aging under the Trump administration and the long-term repercussions of those changes, as well as the uncertainty they bring. This program is presented in-person at JCA for up to 35 attendees and virtually for all others. Howard Gleckman is a past president of JCA and the author of Caring for Our Parents (St. Martin’s Press) and is a Senior Fellow at The Urban Institute, where he is affiliated with both the Tax Policy Center and the Program on Retirement Policy. He is the author the Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center’s fiscal policy blog Tax Vox and a weekly blog on aging issues for Forbes.com. Mr. Gleckman speaks and writes frequently on long-term care and on tax policy. His recent Forbes blog articles include Trump Backs Special Tech Worker Visas, What About Nurses And Care Aides?, Medicaid Cuts Still Are On The Table. Here’s How They Could Affect Older Adults, The Price Of Slashing Social Security’s Staff, Musk Vows To Cut $700 Billion in Social Security, Medicare, And Medicaid Fraud. He Can’t., and What Will The Trump Administration Do With Medicare Advantage? Attendees of the live event will have the opportunity to ask questions and the Q&A portion will be included in the virtual program.

This presentation aims for people to understand the techniques used to help older adults recover from falls, and to reduce injury risk with a particular focus on preparation, exercise, and reducing home hazards. TOPICS Fall Recovery Techniques Exercises to Help Fall Recovery Safety Strategies at Home For More Information: 202-559-9856 Jose Cepillo

All village members, volunteers, and friends are invited to this seminar on hearing loss and treatment options. Hearing loss affects 1 in 3 of us over age 65. It may ‘sneak up‘ gradually to affect everyday activities... Hearing loss also increases the likelihood of social isolation and depression as well as the risk of cognitive decline. In this session, licensed hearing specialist Sherrie Hunt, will discuss how to spot hearing loss, why it happens, and explore different treatments and service types including demsytifying OTC vs Rx, and costs and differences with various options. Hunt has 25 years experience in the hearing industry and serves the wider Bethesda area. Zoom link here https://us06web.zoom.us/j/83338308020?pwd=xkDLRR70aaZEzowQSrMwhiobAAyaap. This seminar is brought to you by Bethesda Metro Area Village and Yes Hearing Bethesda, an independent hearing service operating in the wider Bethesda community. Yes Hearing offers free hearing tests at their location in Pike & Rose, as well as in-home, in-office and in-clinic services.

Our speaker, Pru Foster, will focus on Five Handy Climate Actions to Help Save Our Planet, in an interactive, engaging presentation about different ways you can help reduce global warming and why your actions are so vital, especially at this time. We will start with a game to test our understanding of current climate issues, before we launch into more about our Five Handy Climate Actions.

Trump 2.0 and the Survival of the American Constitutional System Tuesday, April 22 4:00-5:00 pm via Zoom Open to Everyone Our speaker is Michael L. Mezey, Professor Emeritus of Political Science at DePaul University in Chicago, and author of five books. Michael is a resident of Friendship Heights and an FHNN volunteer. He will discuss how the general understanding of the constitutional arrangement of shared powers between the President and the Congress has, he believes, been challenged during the early months of the second Trump Administration. Dr. Mezey also believes that Trump’s assertion of executive power exploits the ambiguities in the constitutional design of the presidency, exposes the fragility of the checks on executive tyranny that the Founders believed that they had created, and calls into question the commitment of the American people to our constitutional system. This is an FHNN event, open to everyone, as part of our collaboration with Little Falls Village. The link will be sent several days before the program.

Marymount University Center for Optimal Aging, in partnership with Safe at Home, is hosting an online screening of “Saving Claire” followed by an expert panel discussion on April 29, from 6:30 to 8 p.m. Host Village: DC Villages Collaborative Registration: RSVP via the "Register Now" button by April 28th.

Do you know what kind of questions you’ll be asked on that first (often frantic) call? Which emergency service will be sent to your address? What kind of training will the personnel who respond have received? Can you request which hospital you go to? Are there documents with the patient’s medical history you should have ready? What happens when a patient arrives at the Emergency Room? What kind of charges, if any, are there when rescue personnel respond to a 911 call? We’ll get the answers to these questions and more from Jim Resnick, a retired Montgomery County career firefighter and paramedic who has volunteered with the Bethesda-Chevy Chase Rescue Squad since 1975 and currently serves on its board of directors.