Make Them Go Away: Clint Eastwood, Christopher Reeve & The Case Against Disability Rights

I took one star off out of personal distaste for including celebrity names in the headline. That was probably a publisher's decision, and definitely not something that really detracts from the book.I recommend it to anyone who wants to know about a fight in which the only voices you really hear from are those who are against including the disabled, and find lots of legal and "reasonable-sounding" ways to segregate and separate and discriminate against them.The part I liked best contemplated how life would be better for everyone if our society designed and built, as well as hired and educated, to accommodate a wide range of human ability instead of a narrow one. This vision is worth the book.

The book had markings on the inside so that wasn't cool. Other than that, everything was alright. I just wish they would have described that before I got the book.

I love "Make Them Go Away". It is very informational. It has both sides of the issue and you can make your own mind up on what you believe. It also gives you some history on the disability rights movement. It makes me want to take some action in my own community as well.

who knew Clint was such a dick? Certainly not me until this book came around!

The book discusses both sides of the disability issue. This is an important view of the disability conflict, ADA laws, and contraversies.

Sad state of affairs...making excuses for not doing the right thing....

Very poor

Make Them Go Away was my first encounter with any disability rights-centered literature. The director of my university's Disability Services Office loaned me his copy after I came to him with the epiphany that disability does not have to be medicalized, nor did I have to accept the permanence of being a disenfranchised person because I had mild cerebral palsy. In the ensuing days, I curled up in my dorm, read this book, periodically wanted to throw it across the room, and learned more than I ever could from a history text or, perhaps, even the best-conceived Disability Studies course.Mary Johnson's writing on the disability rights issue is deft, raw, probing, impeccably researched, and at times wrenching. Some, especially the personal accounts of persons with disabilities, left me angry, ready to jump from my own skin in the eagerness to do something. I experienced physical sensations akin to heartburn. Some of the stories contained in this book include the account of a woman told she was "selfish" for wanting to use a public bus, just because she needed accommodations to ride said bus, and the story of a man with a disability trapped in an institution whose services he did not need. This person was regularly abused, left to lie on his side in bed, afflicted with untreated scabies, and had a full catheter forced into his mouth for imagined noncompliance toward an aide.Along with this, Mary Johnson deconstructs arguments against disability rights, especially from celebrities like Clint Eastwood (never liked him, never watched his movies, and will NEVER read/watch/listen to anything he is connected to again). She rightly points out several flaws within the ADA (or in Britain, DDA). Among these are the "escape clause" that other reviewers have mentioned, which says a business does not have to be accessible if doing so causes "undue hardship" (and who defines that? I'll give you a hint--not anyone with a disability). Johnson also goes over pitfalls like the broad definition of "disability" under the ADA--a definition that lumps people with legitimate disabilities into the same group with people who, say, complain that they have the right to sue their workplaces because they have a temporary bad back. Her arguments are piercingly logical, and it boggles my mind that more people are not listening to, absorbing, and sharing them.There are a couple of minor issues with Make Them Go Away. As other reviewers have mentioned, one is the title. The title makes this book sound anti-disability, not pro. While this was probably a publishing decision, it wasn't the best one. Nor was it a good decision to include celebrity names on the cover, as this usually indicates endorsement from one or both sides.I also personally found it disturbing that in places, Johnson seems to indicate conservative Americans are the ones keeping persons with disabilities from functioning as full, contributing society members. In contrast, liberal Americans are sometimes painted as "heroes" who somehow "rescued" disability rights legislation and the associated citizens it was written to help. Now of course, in every political group, you will find people who believe PWDs are "failed normal," that the best we can do is to "help the handicapped" in whatever minimum-effort fashion is most cost-effective. But in my personal and painful experience, it is actually liberal-leaning Americans who keep PWDs dependent, disenfranchised, and discriminated against.Anyway, that last thing is kind of a nitpick. My recommendation is, read this, even and especially if you have no persons with disabilities in your life. Pace yourself. Be prepared for high emotions and the urge to throw, hit, or rip the nearest inanimate object, because if you're like me, you will find out you have been duped and deceived, and that an entire population is being treated, at best, like special snowflake pets. But please, I am begging you, read it. Get the scoop. And then see what you as a person can do to move beyond "helping the handicapped."