Nike - Goddess of Victory

This week's hike started from the trailhead at Rodeo Lagoon in the Marin Headlands. All 30-something of us hikers plodded slowly uphill. There was heavy fog, but with no wind it was surprisingly warm. At the top of the hill is an old battery. It dates back to the 1890s. There were armaments all over the hilltops, bristling with guns to protect us from our enemies.

Up, up, up the hill we went. Finally we crested a hill arriving at the site known as SF-87C, the Hawk Hill Nike Site. From this old strategic vantage point, the US military was supposed to be able to shoot down aircraft bringing nuclear weapons to our west coast doorstep. The Nike Missiles were named after the Greek Goddess of Victory. But I think, had they needed to be deployed, it would have been a Pyrrhic victory at best. In fact, I'm not sure who the victors would have been.

Today, this grim cold war artifact reminds me that we need to stay vigilant in our pursuit of that which is right, that blinding following dogma will lead us only to the Mad world of Dr. Strangelove.