If Your Dreams Are Big Enough
The Facts Don't Count
Michael Long's story, as told to Karl Williams, exposes the social struggles of a boy who was born with cerebral palsy and later classified as developmentally disabled. His autobiography describes how "...he found his way out of the world of negativity about him and into a new way of being."
Michael's doctors at first doubted that he would ever be able to walk or even communicate. However, his parents had a different idea, and with the aid of counseling and special education classes, he made it through 12 years of school.
Michael remembered that all the special attention he received "...created a bunch of walls between me and my peers." In the first grade he was called "Retardo" by the pupils who learned that he was mentally retarded. Then in the third grade he became the "clown" or teacher's pet. But to him, being picked on was to be expected as a part of his life.
In his junior and senior years, Michael "...fell more between the cracks, because I didn't want to hang out with people with developmental disability..." So he became an equipment manager for the football team. But the only pleasant semester he had in all of his schooling was in his last year when he took a civics course with the normal students and passed with a B+ grade.
After graduation Michael worked on his parents' farm for two years, but then got a job near San Francisco. From there he moved to Chico, California, and had to live off Social Security and SSI. Soon he became active in a People First group and traveled around the country giving speeches that emphasized, "We are not retards. We are people just like you." In 1992, Governor Pete Wilson heard what Michael was doing and appointed him the Consumer Coordinator at the Department of Developmental Services.
In 1992, Michael got a "hand control" driver's license. Then in 1993, he married Hallie, a girl who suffered from epilepsy. In 1995 they bought a home in Sacramento.
Karl Williams does a good job of narrating this story just as Michael might have told it. The photo on the book cover brings the reader closer to Michael and the important message of his life. The only other thing that might be helpful in the story is more information describing Michael Long's specific handicaps.