I know you’re thinking that November 4 is a big day in deciding the future of America. There’s this whole presidential election that will either put Sen. John McCain or Sen. Barack Obama in the White House come January. But I’m afraid that no matter what happens in Decision ’08, the next generation’s fate is already sealed.

I have observed many different people during my time running in Northern Virginia (the kind with the shoes and shorts, not the political kind). There’s a park about a mile from my parents’ house that is a frequent location for these excursions, and it was there that today I caught a glimpse of what is in store.

And it’s not good.

After darting across a not-so-busy street, I swung into the park and ran past a horse ring. Nearby there is a playground that had maybe a dozen youngsters partaking in childlike fun while their parents watched from a short distance. But next to the horse ring, away from the group, there was a single child sitting in the grass by himself. He gave little notice to me as I passed, which is probably a good thing since I was intently focused on exactly what he was doing.

That of course was eating grass. This particular park is a model 1930s working farm, and having grown up just down the road I assure you that I know the difference between the cows that graze in the fields and children who now apparently graze there as well.

Maybe an Obama administration will help fund better education, focus on fighting hunger and perhaps an increase in biofuels that could put that grass in a gastank far from that child’s reach. Or we could just elect the Libertarian candidate and let the kid just do what he wants. The grass a few feet from a pen that has horses running around all day is probably delicious.

Later I got an email from the McCain-Palin campaign letting me know I should vote tomorrow and informing me of my polling place. I scrolled to the bottom to go for the “unsubscribe me” type button, which at first seemed like a waste of time given there’s only a day left until the election. But it was the principle of the thing.

At the unsubscribe page, there were options for saying why you wanted to be taken off the list. They ranged from “Support McCain, but emails are too frequent,” “Support McCain, but don’t want to receive mail,” to “I am no longer a McCain supporter and want to be taken off the list.”

Fortunately there was a comment box, since I at no point supported McCain and certainly did not sign up for emails from said campaign. I wonder how many “For the record, I never supported John McCain and hope Senator Barack Obama has a resounding victory on election day!!!!” responses they get.