A 'Cha Cha Slide' dance party broke out amongst people waiting to vote in Philadelphia
Election Day is a special occasion where Americans of all walks of life come together to collectively make important decisions about the country's future. Although we do it together as a community, it's usually a pretty formal affair.
People tend to stand quietly in line, clutching their voter guides. Politics can be a touchy subject, so most usually stand in line like they're waiting to have their number called at the DMV.
However, a group of voters in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania received a lot of love on social media on Sunday for bringing a newfound sense of joy to the voting process.
Videos circulating online showed groups of dancers doing the "Cha Cha Slide" by DJ Casper while waiting to cast their ballots. While it looked like an impromptu display by bored voters making the best of the long line, it was actually the work of Nelini Stamp, 32, the director of the strategy for the Working Families Party and the campaign director for Election Defenders.
The nonpartisan coalition's goal is to help voters stay "staying safe and healthy outside of polling places across the country and bringing them some joy."
"Because voter suppression has been rampant for years, because there has been so much in the media and so much out there about white supremacists and militia intimidation tactics, we figured that this was a year to make sure that people felt motivated to go vote and not feel unsafe," Stamp told BuzzFeed News.
"Especially in the middle of a global pandemic," she added.
The coalition's work also includes training thousands of people in de-escalation tactics to combat voter intimidation at the polls. Stamp believes that the joyous, calming effect music has on people helps with de-escalating a potentially stressful situation because it "centers the mood in something else."
The viral cha-cha dance was courtesy of Joy to the Polls, a concert put on by the coalition to entertain voters waiting in line. The Resistance Revival Chorus, a group of women and nonbinary activists dressed in white, joined in the festivities by dancing alongside the voters in an adjacent parking lot.
The joyous moment showed that with an inspired community organization, even standing in a two-hour-long polling line can be fun. But it also calls attention to a larger problem in American democracy: long polling lines.
"That person should not have to have to wait in line for an hour," Stamp said.
"However, we wanted to do something good for those people [standing in line]," she said. "And it felt really good that that person and those folks who saw — whether it was the Cha Cha Slide or the Wobble or people doing the Electric Slide, it at least brought them some joy and some relief in a process that wasn't meant for us, especially Black and brown people."
Studies show that voters in primarily Black neighborhoods wait for 29% longer than those in primarily white neighborhoods. They are also about 74% more likely to wait more than half an hour.
There will be fewer polling places in Philadelphia this year, compared to most. There are normally 830 open on election day, but this year there will only be 718. Some of this is due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the understanding that more people will be voting by mail.
This mirrors the reduction in polling places throughout the country. Over 21,000 polling places have been eliminated across the country this year. That's a 20% drop compared to 2016. Vice attributes these closure to "a heavy shift to mail voting, coronavirus-related consolidations, cost-cutting measures, and voter suppression."
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An Irish woman went to the doctor for a routine eye exam. She left with bright neon green eyes.
It's not easy seeing green.
Did she get superpowers?
Going to the eye doctor can be a hassle and a pain. It's not just the routine issues and inconveniences that come along when making a doctor appointment, but sometimes the various devices being used to check your eyes' health feel invasive and uncomfortable. But at least at the end of the appointment, most of us don't look like we're turning into The Incredible Hulk. That wasn't the case for one Irish woman.
Photographer Margerita B. Wargola was just going in for a routine eye exam at the hospital but ended up leaving with her eyes a shocking, bright neon green.
At the doctor's office, the nurse practitioner was prepping Wargola for a test with a machine that Wargola had experienced before. Before the test started, Wargola presumed the nurse had dropped some saline into her eyes, as they were feeling dry. After she blinked, everything went yellow.
Wargola and the nurse initially panicked. Neither knew what was going on as Wargola suddenly had yellow vision and radioactive-looking green eyes. After the initial shock, both realized the issue: the nurse forgot to ask Wargola to remove her contact lenses before putting contrast drops in her eyes for the exam. Wargola and the nurse quickly removed the lenses from her eyes and washed them thoroughly with saline. Fortunately, Wargola's eyes were unharmed. Unfortunately, her contacts were permanently stained and she didn't bring a spare pair.
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Since she has poor vision, Wargola was forced to drive herself home after the eye exam wearing the neon-green contact lenses that make her look like a member of the Green Lantern Corps. She couldn't help but laugh at her predicament and recorded a video explaining it all on social media. Since then, her video has sparked a couple Reddit threads and collected a bunch of comments on Instagram:
“But the REAL question is: do you now have X-Ray vision?”
“You can just say you're a superhero.”
“I would make a few stops on the way home just to freak some people out!”
“I would have lived it up! Grab a coffee, do grocery shopping, walk around a shopping center.”
“This one would pair well with that girl who ate something with turmeric with her invisalign on and walked around Paris smiling at people with seemingly BRIGHT YELLOW TEETH.”
“I would save those for fancy special occasions! WOW!”
“Every time I'd stop I'd turn slowly and stare at the person in the car next to me.”
“Keep them. Tell people what to do. They’ll do your bidding.”
In a follow-up Instagram video, Wargola showed her followers that she was safe at home with normal eyes, showing that the damaged contact lenses were so stained that they turned the saline solution in her contacts case into a bright Gatorade yellow. She wasn't mad at the nurse and, in fact, plans on keeping the lenses to wear on St. Patrick's Day or some other special occasion.
While no harm was done and a good laugh was had, it's still best for doctors, nurses, and patients alike to double-check and ask or tell if contact lenses are being worn before each eye test. If not, there might be more than ultra-green eyes to worry about.