A review of A Walk in the Park: My Charlottesville Story, by Padraig Martin
Charlottesville was a watershed event in American political history, a necessary precursor to the shameful J6 debacle of 2021. On the weekend of 12 August 2017, the Unite the Right (UTR) rally, organized by local activist Jason Kessler to honorably defend monuments to two Confederate heroes, Robert E. Lee and Thomas Jonathan “Stonewall” Jackson, was set up and then ambushed by a cabal of criminals on the local, state, and federal levels. On that day, according to Padraig Martin in his book A Walk in the Park: My Charlottesville Story (2022), the America that he knew died an ignominious death.
Martin’s story is valuable for several reasons, not the least of which is that he was in the middle of the action that occurred on East Market Street and in Lee Park on Saturday, 12 August. Moreover, he sets the events of the UTR rally in their proper political, social, cultural, and historical context. And to conclude, he lays out what I believe to be a workable plan for dissident Southern (and other) nationalists to build on what we all learned from the hard lessons on those hot Virginia streets in the summer of 2017.
As a very wise person told me after the UTR rally, Charlottesville was a one-off occurrence. There won’t be another one. Oftentimes, one chance is all you get, and need, to prove a point and do your duty in such a way that has a profound impact on future events. Like many I’ve talked with after the fact, Martin does not regret going there and indeed fulfilling the moral imperative of standing strong and resolute for our shared Southern cultural heritage. But he understands, too, that it was a trap into which we walked, and that we ought to be smart enough to avoid such things in the future. Indeed, there will not be another Charlottesville, and there doesn’t need to be. The original served its purpose. It laid bare the face of a monster that has been loosed and is rampaging openly against the Christian civilization that defines the South and much of the rest of historic White America.
Martin’s narrative is clear and crisp. He tells a good story, which is his stated intent. Having been there myself, I can attest to the accuracy of his accounts (including the story of the exchange of the revolver that ended up getting him in trouble with the cops) and his descriptions of Mike Tubbs and the shield wall that steadfastly held the southeast entrance to Lee Park against all Antifa and Black Lives Matter (BLM) attempts to breach our security. Like many others who marched with us and defended the women, children, and elderly, Martin is a hero of Charlottesville. I saw him in action, but he is too modest in his writing to build himself up. But because of men like him, Tubbs, and dozens of other League members and our allies, we turned what might have been a disaster into an operation that marched into a trap and successfully escaped from it with limited casualties. And we are still around the tell the tale.
Dr. David Duke has called Charlottesville the Southern Thermopylae. Although we didn’t literally perish as did Leonidas’ 300 at the Hot Gates, we did confront an enemy much stronger than we were, which of course included the power of the state as well as thousands of Antifa and BLM thugs, and took the punishment that followed (especially in the legal realm) on behalf of our people. Martin clearly understands the stakes that were on the table at Charlottesville, and his personal story adds immensely to the real and true narrative of that fateful day in the old Commonwealth of Virginia. I hope others who were there will follow his lead and tell their personal story.
I can’t help thinking that Lee and Stonewall would have been proud of us all.
Michael Hill
Killen, Alabama
15 December 2022
