Clinton Let’s His Fingers Do Talking at Graduation

President Clinton, in his first commencement address this year, made the hand sign for “congratulations” Friday to students at Gallaudet University for the deaf.

Delivering an upbeat message of triumph over adversity and equal opportunity for the disabled, Clinton drew cheers from the crowd of 384 graduates and thousands of well-wishers at a field house at the Gallaudet campus in northeast Washington.

“The students of Gallaudet University, who have struggled so mightily, first for simple dignity and then for equal opportunity . . . have built yourselves and in the process you have built for the rest of us, your fellow citizens of this country and the world, a much better world,” Clinton said. “You have re-given to all of us our hope.”