Last week, Jose Ismael Torres and Kayla Rae Norton of Georgia were sentenced to 13 years and 6 years in prison, respectively. This sentencing in and of itself isn’t a big deal, as people get sentenced to prison every day. However, what sets Torres and Norton’s sentences apart from the rest is what they did that landed them in trouble in the first place.

Back in 2015, Torres and Norton were part of a group that terrorized an 8-year-old’s birthday party in the town of Douglasville, GA. Why would a group of adults terrorize a child’s birthday party? Well, Torres and Norton were in a convoy of trucks that drove down the street. proudly displaying the American flag and Confederate flag next to each other. The child and partygoers, who the convoy passed by, happened to be people of color. You can probably guess what happened. Not only did Torres and Norton threaten to kill the partygoers, including the child, but Torres also aimed a shotgun at them.

Now, even the most mediocre marksman knows that the golden rule of gun safety: you never point a weapon at anything you don’t intend to shoot. As a result of breaking this golden rule and several actual laws, Torres and Norton were both charged with making terroristic threats and violating Georgia’s street gang act, and the former was also charged with three counts of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon. Although they were not the only ones arrested for the incident, Torres and Norton received the harshest sentences.

While I personally think this is an open-and-shut-case of racist asshats getting what they deserve, there are those who disagree. Torres and Norton were part of a group known as “Respect the Flag,” which was

indicted as a street gang a few months after they terrorized the child’s birthday party. The group, as the name suggests, is all about “respecting” the Confederate flag, which are two words that don’t belong in the same sentence. However, they are not by any means the only people who revere the “Stars and Bars” (even though that was the name of a different Confederate flag than the one commonly flown). In fact, what the Confederate flag actually represents is still a subject of heated debate. As a military history buff, and someone whose ancestor who fought for the Union (thankfully), I obviously don’t hold the Confederate flag or the Confederates themselves in high regard. Historically, I believe the flag to be a sign of treason, and the Confederates to be traitors who deserved the scorched-earth policy, or “total war” strategy, that General Sherman employed in his famous March to the Sea. But if you ask what the Confederate flag means to someone who lives below the Mason-Dixon line, you're more likely to hear how it represents "Southern pride." But if they start referring to the Civil War as "The War of Northern Aggression," kindly remind them who started the conflict (hint: it was the South).