EMPATHY ARCADEIn the darkness, be the light

SOURCES

Every fact card that appears while you play is listed here with where it came from. These are public government and research sources, and they are worth reading directly — the games summarize, they don't replace. Numbers change year to year; the games avoid citing precise figures that go stale and stick to the rules and patterns that hold.

ACA NAVIGATOR

  • Marketplace plans cannot deny you coverage or charge you more because of a pre-existing condition.

    HealthCare.gov, Coverage for pre-existing conditions

  • Preventive care — checkups, screenings, vaccines — is covered with no copay on Marketplace plans.

    HealthCare.gov, Preventive care benefits

  • Most people who enroll qualify for a premium tax credit that lowers the monthly bill.

    HealthCare.gov, Save on your Marketplace premiums

  • Every Marketplace plan covers ten essential benefits, including emergency care, prescriptions, and mental health.

    HealthCare.gov, Essential health benefits

  • Losing a job, moving, having a baby, or getting married opens a Special Enrollment Period outside the normal window.

    HealthCare.gov, Special Enrollment Periods

  • Free local help exists: Navigators and certified assisters walk you through enrollment at no cost.

    HealthCare.gov, Find local help

SNAP SUPPORTER

  • SNAP is the country's largest anti-hunger program, and most people receiving it are in families with children, older adults, or people with disabilities.

    USDA Food and Nutrition Service, SNAP program overview

  • SNAP benefits are spent quickly and locally — mostly at neighborhood grocery stores and markets.

    USDA Economic Research Service, SNAP and the economy

  • Most working-age adults who receive SNAP work; benefits fill the gap when hours or wages fall short.

    USDA Food and Nutrition Service, SNAP characteristics reports

  • Food banks and soup kitchens are a supplement, not a substitute — charitable food provides a small share of the meals SNAP covers.

    Feeding America, Hunger in America research

  • Free school meals and summer meal programs reach kids when the household budget runs out first.

    USDA Food and Nutrition Service, Child nutrition programs

CLIMATE DEFENDER

  • Extreme heat is one of the deadliest weather hazards in the United States, and public cooling centers are a frontline response for people without air conditioning.

    CDC, Heat and Health / National Weather Service heat safety

  • Communities that invest in mitigation before a disaster save several dollars in avoided damage for every dollar spent.

    National Institute of Building Sciences, Natural Hazard Mitigation Saves

  • Solar and wind are now among the cheapest sources of new electricity generation in much of the country.

    U.S. Energy Information Administration, Levelized cost of new generation resources

  • Wildfire seasons in the western United States have grown longer, and the area burned each year has trended upward for decades.

    U.S. EPA, Climate Change Indicators: Wildfires

  • Heavy rainfall events have become more frequent and intense across much of the country, increasing flood risk beyond historic maps.

    U.S. Global Change Research Program, National Climate Assessment

ASYLUM SEEKER

  • Immigrants pay hundreds of billions of dollars in federal, state, and local taxes each year — including into programs many cannot draw from.

    American Immigration Council, Immigrants and taxes fact sheet

  • Immigrants are more likely than U.S.-born residents to start a business, and immigrant-founded firms employ millions of workers.

    American Immigration Council, Immigrant entrepreneurs research

  • Immigrants make up an outsized share of health care aides, nurses, and doctors — the people who care for aging Americans.

    Migration Policy Institute, Immigrants in the health care workforce

  • There is no public defender in immigration court. If you cannot afford a lawyer, you face the government alone.

    Vera Institute of Justice, Advancing Universal Representation

  • People with legal representation in immigration court are dramatically more likely to win their case than people without it.

    Vera Institute of Justice, representation outcomes research

  • Asylum is a legal right. Applying for protection at the border or from inside the country is lawful, not a crime.

    UNHCR, 1951 Refugee Convention and U.S. asylum law

  • Research consistently finds immigrants are not more likely to commit crimes than people born in the United States.

    National Academies of Sciences, The Integration of Immigrants into American Society

  • Immigration court backlogs run into the millions of cases, and a single hearing date can be years away.

    TRAC Immigration, immigration court backlog data

BLUE WAVE

Blue Wave is the purely recreational cabinet. It makes no factual claims and shows no fact cards, so there is nothing here to cite. It is a surfing game, and that is all it is.

A NOTE ON ACCURACY

The people and scenes in these games are invented, and gameplay compresses timelines that in reality run for months or years. The rules underneath — how enrollment works, what SNAP is, that there is no public defender in immigration court — are accurate as written. If you spot something wrong, it should be corrected rather than defended.

Ready to play? Back to the arcade.