HARRISBURG — Sen. Doug Mastriano (R-33) issued the following statement today:
“The treatment of Littlestown bus driver Dave Bonhoff should outrage every Pennsylvanian who believes in liberty, fairness and the constitutional freedoms that define our nation.
“Mr. Bonhoff is a retired police officer who continued serving his community by safely transporting children to school. Yet he was effectively forced out of his job because he wore a hat that read ‘Make America Great Again.’ Whether someone agrees with that message is completely irrelevant. In America, citizens do not lose their First Amendment rights simply because someone else claims to be offended.
“What happened here is not about ‘sensitivity’ or ‘respect.’ It is about the suffocating culture of political correctness that is spreading through our institutions — a culture that demands conformity, punishes dissent and attempts to silence anyone who refuses to bow to its ideology.
“Political correctness has become a tool of intimidation. It is used to shame, threaten and drive ordinary Americans out of their jobs and public life simply for expressing views that do not align with the approved narrative. That is not tolerance. That is coercion.
“Pennsylvania is the birthplace of American liberty. Our commonwealth gave the world the Declaration of Independence, and our soil was defended by patriots who endured unimaginable hardship to secure the freedoms we enjoy today. They did not fight a revolution so that Americans would one day be bullied into silence by political activists or punished for expressing patriotic beliefs.
“Driving a man out of his job because someone dislikes the message on his hat is not neutrality — it is ideological discrimination, plain and simple.
“Dave Bonhoff showed more courage in standing by his principles than many institutions have shown in defending the rights they claim to value. No American should ever be forced to choose between their livelihood and their constitutional freedoms.
“Political correctness is not harmless. It is corrosive to a free society. When speech is policed and citizens are punished for expressing lawful opinions, liberty itself is under attack.
“I stand firmly with Dave Bonhoff and with every Pennsylvanian who refuses to be bullied into silence.
“Free speech does not exist only for views that are popular or politically fashionable. It exists precisely to protect the right of Americans to speak their minds without fear of retaliation.
“Freedom of expression is not granted by bureaucrats, administrators or activists. It is a God-given right protected by the Constitution — and it must be defended without apology.”
CONTACT: Don Beishl