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June 8, 2006

“Tube” director O’Toole addresses law graduates

In times of national crisis, history records a pattern, Pitt School of Law 2006 graduates were told at their May 27 commencement ceremony. But has society learned from these lessons of history?

“Something fearful happens. The government takes strong action to alleviate the fear. After a time, the fear passes, and everyone condemns the government’s excesses,” said 1980 law alumnus Timothy T. O’Toole, managing director of the London Underground, who delivered the commencement address.

From the Alien Sedition Act of 1798 to Lincoln’s suspension of habeas corpus during the Civil War to the internment of Japanese Americans during World War II to the “Red Scare” witch hunts of the Joe McCarthy era, American history is rife with examples of the government centralizing its power at the expense of civil liberties, O’Toole told the graduates at Soldiers and Sailors Memorial Auditorium and Museum.

“These incidents become fodder for those who say we must defend liberty at any cost versus those who say that in a time of national emergency the government must take more control to expand its police power,” O’Toole said. And the argument has numerous eminent legal minds taking sides, he added. “Those in favor of more control, invariably, point to Chief Justice [William] Rehnquist’s formulation that, as threat increases, government power must also increase,” O’Toole said. “Those on the other side of the argument go to Justice [Sandra Day] O’Connor’s formulation, that pointed out that a state of war is not a blank check for the president when it comes to this nation’s citizens’ rights.”

Or they cite Chief Justice Earl Warren, who pointed out the irony of a government, acting in the name of national defense, sacrificing the civil rights and liberties that make that defense worthwhile, he said.

“My experience has taught me that in some ways this age-old debate misstates the issue and presents a false choice,” said O’Toole, who took charge of the reaction to the July 2005 terrorist bombings of the London Underground and is credited with promoting calm and restoring order following the attack.

“Society is not in need of greater controls. It needs competence in its institutions. We argue endlessly over the role of government and not enough about the effectiveness of government,” he maintained.

Recounting events leading up to the July 7 suicide attacks on the Underground, O’Toole, who previously spent 21 years at Conrail working his way up to CEO, said, “I was recruited in 2003 to run and rebuild the Underground. The London Underground is the oldest underground railway in the world and, like so much of England, its age is its charm but also its burden.”

By 2005, modernization of the “Tube,” as it is known to Londoners, was well underway, but O’Toole’s job “got a bit more challenging about 10 months ago,” he said.

“On the 6th of July we had the Olympic committee appointing London as the host of the 2012 Olympic Games. It was such a wonderful day. It was sunny, and there were celebrations that continued into the next morning.”

But that same next morning brought terror close to home.

“Three young men boarded three of my trains at King’s Cross Station: One headed east, one west and one south,” said O’Toole, recalling that day’s chilling details. “They waited till the trains got into the tunnel and then they detonated the bombs they carried with them.”

A fourth bomber apparently became confused, came out from the Tube and boarded a double-decker bus where he detonated his bomb about an hour after the others had been triggered, O’Toole said.

“Fifty-two innocent people died; over 700 were seriously injured, many in very life-changing ways,” he said of the horrific scene. “This act of terrorism was responded to by my staff, and they were absolutely magnificent. Those on site ran to help, some into dark smoky tunnels where they tended to the injured and dying.”

Within an hour, a quarter million people were evacuated and within two hours the Underground’s management team was developing plans to restore service for the Tube’s 3 million daily passengers.

“By the next morning we were up and running,” and service was fully restored within a month of the bombings, he said.

“I recognize that the reason I’m standing here in front of you today is because of [my staff’s] performance,” O’Toole said. In February the Pittsburgh native was honored by Queen Elizabeth, who bestowed on him the title of honorary Commander of the British Empire for his record of achievement as managing director of the London Underground and for his service to England during the July 7 crisis.

“The performance of my staff provided me with [a lesson]: Fear, which is the currency of terrorism, is conquered not by courage and bravery, but by competence,” O’Toole said. Bravery and courage are admirable attributes, but rare and unpredictable, “whereas competence gives you routine and protects you from panic and ineffectiveness,” he said. “There was no panic, no recriminations after the fact about who should fault whom. It was just a simple display of competent professionalism that went a very long way to confronting the fear that had otherwise gripped the city.”

The United States has been confronting fear since the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks, O’Toole noted.

“The madness that we face today will pass. It always has before. When you’re in the midst of it, it seems like it must be the ultimate struggle, and that fear would justify any means, any response. But the madness eventually burns itself out. It will this time as well. I refuse to believe that suicide is a sustainable business model. The madness will pass. The fear will pass. The challenges won’t.”

The most important challenge society confronts at this point in history, he said, is not presented by Osama bin Laden or Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.

“Where the true challenge comes from is the stunning march of technology, which is shifting power from institutions to individuals,” O’Toole said.

A single computer hacker has the power to destroy a large company’s finances. A lone web site can exert more influence on national politics than established newspapers. Or a few evil men can use box cutters to turn a passenger jet into a cruise missile, he pointed out.

“No amount of government control can keep up with the stunning march of technology and creativity of men and women,” O’Toole said. “Society’s only response to this challenge is to develop competence in its institutions, so that you can absorb change, master change and exploit it.

“And the people who can ensure that this happens will receive a degree here today. Today you become stewards of this country’s gift to civilization: the rule of law [which] is the source of all our wealth, our quality of life and our capacity to sustain society.”

He asked the new lawyers to strive to protect society from its fears by bringing values and reason to every discussion and principles and intellectual honesty to every act.

“You must promote confidence in our institutions to protect the few and the weak. Go and defend liberty when it seems most expensive, so society can benefit from change and creativity rather than surrender its advantage in a futile attempt to control or stifle it.”

O’Toole predicted great success for his fellow Pitt law school alumni in their future endeavors. “But, in attaining that success, you can protect and support the soul of this country.”

Also at the May 27 Pitt law commencement ceremony:

• The Student Bar Association awarded Lu-in Wang the 2006 Excellence in Teaching Award. Wang, an expert in hate crimes law, also won the association’s teaching award in 2000, and was named a Chancellor’s Distinguished Teaching Award winner in 2001.

• Law Dean Mary A. Crossley recognized three Pitt law professors for their 30 years of service to the school. Honored were Lawrence A. Frolik, Arthur D. Hellman and Francis Barry McCarthy.

—Peter Hart


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