Thinking about the first column for the new school year while tending a long-neglected garden, I’m reminded of a popular standard I used to hear on radio station WNEW: “Autumn hath a sadness not akin to pain.”

I guess you and I never will get away from the academic calendar of our in-service years — a time of excitement and renewal for us and for our students.

These days we forgo those beginnings to focus on other things that require our attention.

One of the greatest threats we face is that the long struggle for a labor law to ensure a union’s economic viability through union dues deduction is under serious attack. Although we won that struggle 40 years ago, it may be upended by the Supreme Court, a conservative court that continues to rule in favor of corporate interests. The justices will consider Friedrichs v. the California Teachers Association in October.

Remember when we went on strike to win professional and economic dignity and walked across the Brooklyn Bridge and picketed at our schools? Remember those colleagues who crossed the picket line and collected a salary while we were on strike? And when the settlement came they enjoyed the benefits we had sacrificed so much for?

The only saving grace was that under agency fee laws they were required to pay union dues. But now that law is also under attack as the right-wing fervor to destroy unions by any means continues to gain force.

When our dues check-off was suspended in the 1970s, well over 90 percent of UFT members voluntarily paid their dues in an act of solidarity. I wonder how union members today might react to such a serious, punitive loss.

Other issues that we must watch and work to protect involve the ongoing attacks on Medicare and Medicaid and, by implication, Social Security. The news media has been featuring stories on 50-year anniversaries, events hearkening back to the New Frontier/ Great Society days of the 1960s. [One such celebration took place at the UFT.]

Those who opposed Social Security in the 1930s were still around but were not able to block Medicare and Medicaid in the sweeping electoral victories of progressive Democrats and Republicans.

As my predecessor Tom Pappas is fond of saying, “The bad guys never go away.”

Now, 50 years later, they have reared their regressive heads to try to cripple these very successful programs.

As you start to pay attention to the 2016 political debate, notice those who have a scheme to voucherize or privatize these critical social safety net programs. And take special note of those who offer to preserve and protect our progressive achievements.

Regressive politicians and activists continue to weaken the Voting Rights Act of 1965. We have always believed that the voting booth is the place to correct the faults of our political and social structure, that more citizens voting and participating in our democracy is a good thing. We must oppose those who see advantage in trying to limit voting, and they bear watching.

Remember the old line about teaching: You can have 10 years of experience or one year of experience 10 times. The latter is no way to build a career or a country.

But we are eternal optimists. Looking into the faces of the children we taught or cared for made us that way. That faith in the future must not flag. We’ve always been up for a good fight and the coming year will give us the opportunity to engage in one on many fronts.

And to all those who expressed confidence in my leadership and re-elected me to serve a third three-year term as your Retired Teachers Chapter leader, I thank you and promise to keep fighting for retiree and union interests.