What’s the first presidential campaign that you can remember?

One retiree told me Roosevelt and emphasized FDR, not Teddy. So that goes back to 1944, maybe 1940. My first conscious memory was the Eisenhower/Stevenson campaign in 1952. But the landmark one for me was Kennedy in 1960 when I was age 18 and still too young to vote.

In those days, presidential campaigns seemed to be confined to the calendar year of the actual election. So why is this column appearing a year and a half beforehand? As you watch the early rounds of this campaign, you begin to understand why.

Already the 2016 campaign for the White House is upon us and the American Federation of Teachers is starting to prepare for it by asking for input from union members like us.

As activist retirees, we have never been shy about expressing our concerns for ourselves and for others. After all, when you have spent your career looking into the eyes of children, you realize you have a stake in the future. That’s why teachers, educators, health care workers and all union members understand the role responsible citizens must play in building, maintaining and improving the social contract envisioned in the words: life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

Since our national union, the AFT, will be interviewing and evaluating potential candidates as early as this summer, we have to have discussions now so our points of view can be included.

In the last few years, we have witnessed the concerted attacks on public employees, pensions, health care benefits, Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid. We have even seen court decisions weakening tenure, the backbone of union rights, and are on watch as Agency Fee (union dues) is threatened.

Do you recall the days when we walked across the Brooklyn Bridge, surrounded City Hall and went on strike to attain the benefits and rights we now enjoy? Do you remember the stinkers who crossed the picket line and then enjoyed the gains that we had risked our careers to achieve? At least they were required to pay a fee equivalent to union dues for those benefits. Now that may be taken away. So we have a lot at stake in who becomes the next president.

In seeking our input on issues for the upcoming campaign, the AFT sent us a supply of postcards to be distributed at our May 12 and June 9 RTC general membership meetings urging those present to fill them out and send them in. But if you missed those meetings you can still be heard.

For many of us, getting to meetings or traveling long distances to rallies is not an option. But there are ways that we can still have our voice heard from the comfort of our couch, desk, kitchen, dining room table or whereever we operate our laptop, tablet, or other electronic devices. Amid our coffee, tea and deep musings, we can access the information provided on those postcards and participate in YOU DECIDE AFT ELECTION 2016. At the AFT website, www.aft.org/election2016, you will find the postcard that will allow you to advocate for your issues and for your choice of candidate(s) for president.

The AFT has just reported that 1,524 RTC members used the AFT online lobbying link to notify their congressmen to vote no on the Trans-Pacific trade treaty. Now it’s time to have a say in the upcoming presidential election.

Please don’t be shy; you were never shy in front of your class or in your school or workplace. Let’s all speak up and get this presidential campaign rolling.