What’ll It Be: Tim McGraw or Pavarotti?
A carpenter’s union local seems an unlikely venue for a freedom of expression case that might someday turn up on the Supreme Court’s docket. But a dispute over listening to opera by a member of Local 391289 of the International Brotherhood of Carpenters in Lock Haven, Pennsylvania is certainly headed in that direction.
Opera? At a carpenters’ union?
Well… yes. Abner Blinkhorn grew sitting with his mother in the living room listening to her collection of opera recordings on 78 rpm phonograph records. Neither one spoke Italian, but they both loved the majesty of the music, the glory of the great voices, the pathos of the stories.
Sara Blinkhorn would sit on the sofa, a copy of How to Love Opera open on her lap. “Now the elephants are coming on stage,” she would declare at just the right moment as Aida unfolded before their ears.
Now, 50-plus years later, Blinky Blinkhorn wants to listen to opera as he works on a job site with fellow members of Local 391289. And, no, he doesn’t want his opera confined to the ear buds of an iPod or some similar device. He wants it out in the open, Fortissimo, per favore, blasting just as much as some other carpenter’s rock, country or — God forbid — the incessant nattering and hectoring of Rush Limbaugh.
Blinkhorn believes in turn about as fair play. He also believes passionately that carpenters are entitled to full volume music to help pass the time on the job site, even if it’s a remodeling job and the homeowner is on the premises. Let them wear ear plugs if the entertainment is too loud.
“All I ask is two things,” Blnikhorn said, explaining what drove him to take job site music to the courts. “First, in a five-day work week, I want opera to be the music that is played on the boom box one day out of the five. I’ll just have to grit my teeth and suffer with opera via iPod the rest of the week.
“Second, I want the mean-spirited teasing and razzing to stop. I want to be able to listen to my opera in peace and not be called a fag or pervert because I prefer Madame Butterfly to the aural insanity of Def Leopard.”
Five years ago, after suffering for decades listening to “the drivel that passes for music to most carpenters,” as he calls it, Blinkhorn sought to negotiate with officials of Local 391289 about job site music selection. The local’s position was that union members on a job should vote on music, which meant no opera, period. Blinkhorn asked that one day a week be set aside for opera.
Eventually, Blinkhorn found a recently minted lawyer looking for a cause and filed a lawsuit against the Local, seeking opera one day a week. A year later, a local District Court judge ruled in Blinkhorn’s favor, and the battle was joined.
The Opera Buff Legal Defense Fund took on the case and brought in some New York City big gun lawyers. The union’s leaders in Washington hired a famous K Street legal and lobbying firm. The Pennsylvania Supreme Court is slated to hear arguments in the case. The opera group is trying to move the case into Federal Court, based on research that indicates Federal judges are more favorably disposed to opera than Pennsylvania state court judge.
Meanwhile, Blinky soldiers on. Most days he listens to his opera on an iPod. Some days he brings a boom box and blasts out opera at the same time his colleagues are blaring Tim McGraw or Martina McBride. After a few minutes of this, his colleagues often give in and grant him a day of opera at full throat.
Where will it all end?
“At the Supreme Court, maybe,” Blinkhorn said recently. “It’s the principal of the thing. I should get my turn with my music, just like everyone else.” He believes his view will ultimately prevail.
Meanwhile, being a practical fellow, more often than not he turns down jobs that involve working with his fellow union carpenters and opts for solo gigs with homeowners who appreciate the opera just as much a perfectly mitered crown molding joint.