FEATURE
Spring season begins with a variety of films
THE CLACKAMAS PRINT
Spring Break is rapidly ap- •
proaching us, as is an abundant
variety of movies foryour viewing
pleasure.
Already out in theaters, and
not to be missed is Paramount’s
The Hunt for Red October with
Sean Connery and directed by Die
Hard’s Joe McTieman. Based on
Tom Clancy’s 1984 best seller,
“Hunt” may prove to be one of
the best movies Of 1990.
This Friday Warner Brothers
is releasing their new comedy Joe
Versus the Volcano starring Tom
Hanks and Meg Ryan; Screenwriter
of Moonstruck, John Patrick
Shanley, makes his directorial
debut here. WB has another spring
release, starring Glenn Close and
Jeremy Irons as Mr. and Mrs. Claus
von Bulow, in the biography-based
drama Reversal of Fortune Robert
De Niro tries his hand at Good
Fellas, also from Warner, with Ray
Liotta (Field of Dreams) and
Martin Scorsese directing. Scors­
ese’s last flick, We’re No Angels,
fared devilish at the box office.
Richard Gere and Julia
Roberts star in Pretty Woman, a
Touchstone Pygmalion-isn com­
edy directed by Garry Marshall
(Beaches). Roberts is an Acad­
emy Award nominee for her sup­
porting role in Steel Magnolias,
and Gere’s Internal Affairs is still
playing in first-run theaters.
Many of today’s college stu­
dents were assigned William
Goldings’s Lord of the Flies in
high school English, and were, well,
impressed. Columbia Pictures,
Castle Rock Entertainment (Rob
Remer’s production company), and
Aussie Harry Hookbringanother
adaptation of the adventure to
thesilver screen (the first being in
A Reel View
by
Roseann Wentworth
1963).
Leonardo,
Raphael,
Donatello and Michaelangelo are
coming to save New York City,
not as cartoons on Saturday morn­
ings, not on Nintendo, but, yes, on
the big screen. Teenage Mutant
Ninja Turtles are here, in live ac­
tion and full color. New Line
Cinema is hoping the fab four in
the half shell will fare better than
its last contender, Heart Condi­
tion.
John Travolta stars in action-
filled Chains of Gold which prom­
ises to show a side his fans haven’t
seen in a while. Jamie Lee Curtis
and Ron Silver (Enemies, A Love
Story) headline in Blue Steel, a
romantic suspense thriller-the
critics are already raving. Michael
Caine plays a middle-aged man
who copes with life’s trivialties by
murdering people in A Shock to
the System; Elizabeth McGovern
and Swoozie Kurtz co-star.
Coupe De Ville brings Uni­
versal into the running with its
dramedy starring the geeky heart-
throb Patrick Dempsey along with
Daniel Stem and Arye Gross. The
three are united when they drive a
1954 Caddy cross-country for their
mom’s 50th. Stem played in Barry
Levinson’s Diner in 1982, which
“Coupe’s” characters may , be
similar to.
Orion Pictures have two ¡spring
break releases. Love at Largjc stars
Tom Berenger and Anne Archer
(Fatal Attraction) as P.I.S who
make their paychecks by spying
on lovers suspected of cheating-
of course there’s a twist. Also star­
ring are Elizabeth Perkins and Kate
Capshaw (Black Rain). Brian
Dennehy takes the spotlight as
one of LA’s finest, tracking down
drug lords while losing track of
$20 million in The Last of the
Finest
Happiness found through international adoption
Mercedes Cochran
Milwaukie High School
Editor’s note: The following story
was the first place winner in^the
Journalism Feature Writing portion
of the 12th Annual Skills Competi­
tion.
Ellen Burbridge refused; to
believe that she could ever fall in
love with a photograph. She didn’t
realize how wrong she was until
she saw the photo of the girl with
the red high-top sneakers and lire
big smile. Burbridge knew imme­
diately that she had found her child.
That special memory has
stayed with Bubridge for seven
years. In 1983, the determined
mother packed up her husband
and 12-year-old son and went on a
three-week trip to Colombia. That
particular flight wasn’t just an­
other family vacation. The Burbr­
idges were on a special mission:
to complete their family.
The ultimate purpose of the
trip to Colombia was to meet and
bring home their newly adopted
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NOT FOR THOSE WHO
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BUT FOR THOSE WHO
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ATKINSON
MEMORIAL CHURCH
Sixth & Jöhn Adams, Oregon City
Ttie Reverend Mr. Richard K. Bellingham, Minister
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daughter, Maria. There had been
nine long months of “pregnancy”
for the entire Burbridge family.
“It was kind of a weird way to
have a kid,” Burbridge admitted.
Since the young age of 13,
Burbridge has wanted to adopt a
child from overseas. For her, the
trip was a long-awaited dream come
true. Although the situation was
fine for the Burbridges, she was
quick to explain that not everyone
can adopt Inequality is faced when
she explains that “single people
canadoptand married peoplecan
adopt. Couples living together
cannot adopt.”
For some people eligible to
adopt, the very idea of interna­
tionally adopting is absurd. A child
from another country would' un­
doubtedly speak another language
and be of a different race.
“The American dream is to
have two kids with blue eyes that
look like you and can fit in your
family,” Burbridge said with a trace
of bitterness.
There are many misconcep­
tions about overseas adopting.
Burbridge explained that many
people assume adopting overseas
is easy. The truth is, the process is
emotional as well as long and dif­
ficult. The mom-to-be even had
to take an 11-week class designed
to help her decide what kind of
child she wanted; or, as in some
cases, what kind of child she didn’t
When Ellen Burbridge saw Marla's picture In a book of children
from Columbia up for adoption, "it was love at first sight."
Photo by Scott Johnson
want.
“The process is really amaz­
ing,” said Burbridge. “It really
makes you think” The classes
forced her to consider possibili­
ties such as children having handi­
caps or emotional problems.
All agencies run their pro­
grams in different ways. Some use
stacks of photos like the one
Burbridge went through to decide
which child to adopt. Others use a
system where theyoungone is not
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Camp Fire Community Child Care provides
a developmentally appropriate program for
children 6 months to' 6 years old.
* Convenient Orchard
Center Site on campus
* Full and part-time care
* Serving both the
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* A United Way agency
* Monday-Friday
7:00 a.m. - 6 p.m.
* Kid« love it here!
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11:00 AM
Public Services
9:30 AM
Adult Forum
9:30 AM
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657-6683
seen by the parents until the day
that they are taken home. A child
is simply picked out to fit the
specifications of age, sex, and race.
Burbridge explained that the
international adoption programs
were often “What you get is what
you get.”
As in any country, there are
many drawbacks to adopting. One
problem Burbridge pointed o.ut
was the agencies fabricating facts
about the children. An example of
this was in stating Maria’s age at
the time of adoption.
The agency tokl the family
that Maria was three. In the pho­
tograph, she looked at least five.
When they got her home, they
decided that she would be seven
and would start kindergarten in
the fall. Although she didn’t speak
much Spanish and not a word of
English, Maria slowly learned to
communicate with her new fam­
ily.
Today, Maria is a happy, well-
adjusted 14-year-old junior high
school student. She is anxiously
awaiting the day her family will
take her back to Colombia to “find
her roots.”
Even though international
adoption has its pros and cons,
the Burbridges have found that
the positive has outweighed the
negative in their love for Maria.