Melissa Harris-Perry   |  November 04, 2012

The most important reason to vote

Melissa Harris-Perry's "Footnote" is on what the Twitterverse has to say about #WHYIVOTE.

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This content comes from Closed Captioning that was broadcast along with this program.

>>> i appreciate that social media allows us to be part of communities even when we don't meet face to face . one was on twitter in recent weeks. #whyivote. people are showing up to show their motives. here are some of my favorites. karen writes, i vote because people are still willing to risk everything to be an american. charley tweets, i vote to spite #gop efforts to keep people like me from the polls. dawn writes, because too many people -- and kathleen says i vote so my children will learn that every person has a voice and that voice matters. and i cracked up to read dj's writing that he writes because i. only look illegal. that's #whyivote. peter, because it's supposed to be a government of the people, by the people, for the people. which got me to thinking about we the people and the reason i vote. i vote because it took so long for many of us to be included in we the people. those who harvested the crops for no compensation. we the people who endured the horror of redemption after reconstruction and carried the weight of jim crowe . we the people who swung from southern trees and stood on the front line of foreign wars. we the people who taught our children to read even when the schools had no books. we the people who worshipped a god of liberation even as we suffered oppression. we the people who gave america back its highest ideals with our nonviolent struggles against injustice. we the people are americans and we prove it by voting. that's #whyivote. that's our show for today. thank you to karen finney and katien dawson. i'll see you next saturday at 10:00 eastern. before that, i'm going to chicago. see you there on msnbc on election evening. all part of the night-long msnbc 2012 election coverage. i will be reporting from obama headquarters. be sure to watch tuesday night and wednesday morning. coming up, "weekend with alex witt ." [ male announcer ]