Evan Solomon - not ready for prime time

Maya Angelou is an American treasure, a Black woman who fought through the devastation of a tragic and abusive childhood that left her unable to speak for many years. She is a woman of deep insight, tremendous intelligence, a poet and author whose work offers insight and wisdom in almost every sentence and verse.

It was with great anticipation, therefore that I tuned in to see CBC News Sunday Night for an interview with her by Evan Solomon.

Sadly, Solomon was not up to the task. His questions were simplistic and sophomoric and he compounded the problem by not listening to her answers and plowing through his list as if she had remained silent.

Ms Angelou is supporting Hilary Clinton. Her protege and dear friend (her description) - Oprah Winfrey - is supporting Barack Obama. Asked by Solomon how she could support a white woman instead of a Black candidate, Ms Angelou gave a thoughtful and very articulate answer. Her support, she said, is rooted partly in how Hilary conducted herself when she first came to Arkansas as Bill Clinton's wife, and she talked about what a fresh voice Clinton was, a woman who "never spoke down to people", but paid everyone the courtesy of treating them as individuals who's views and opinions were all as worthy as anyone else's. Ms Angelou went on then to Clinton's time in the White House, when she was pilloried by Republicans in a particularly vicious, personal way. Clinton's response was to stand her ground, firmly and courageously without complaint, without hysteria. It was her courage and dignity then, said Ms Angelou, that convinced her that if Hilary Clinton ever ran for office, she would support her.

In the face of this answer, Solomon's follow-up questions were cringe-inducing, an embarrassment to any thinking person. He referred to the fact she had worked with Malcolm X and Martin Luther King , "yet you've endorsed Hilary Clinton?" he asked, as if this was all beyond the pale.

"Yes," said Ms Angelou, "and I don't see anything contradictory about that."

"Can you take out race and gender?" asked Solomon, clearly way over his head. "How can you take them out? How can you do that?" he asked.

Ms Angelou's answer was clear, and it pilloried Solomon in passing, although much more subtly and gently than he deserved.

"I have taken them out. I've taken them out because I'm an intelligent person. I don't support her because she's a woman. I support her because of the person she is."

Would that there were thousands more as clear sighted and insightful in making choices but the hapless Solomon, as blissfully ignorant of the impression he was making as he was of race and gender issues, continued stomping through the minefield.

But what about Oprah, he asked. What did she say, because she's supporting Obama. To which Ms Angelou replied that she hadn't questioned Winfrey on her choice, anymore than Winfrey had questioned her. They know each other and they each know the other has reasons for any actions they take. But Solomon couldn't let it go. Unable to see that two reasonable people could arrive at different conclusions, he pushed to ask what Winfrey would have said if the subject had been raised.

"Good on you mate," a clearly irritated Angelou replied.

Undaunted, Solomon pressed on. "When people ask you how you can choose a white woman over a black man, what do you say? How can you do that?"

Ms Angelou's answer is one that should ring down the years to all children everywhere and should be part of whatever we teach them in civics classes and ethics classes. How can she do that? "Because I have the courage to do what is right. Without courage you can't practice any other virtue. I have the courage to do the right thing."

About the only reasonable question Solomon asked focused on the popular wisdom that says the US needs to be healed now. "What is it you need to be healed from?", he asked.

Her one-word answer captured all of the trauma inflicted on her country in the last eight years.

"Ignorance," she said and then repeated again: "Ignorance."

When he concluded the interview Solomon challenged her, like the smart alec kid he is, to quote some verse. What would the poet Maya Angelou say in verse, he challenged her.

She thought for a few seconds and then recited a marvelous poem. Her beautiful face, the deep timber of her voice, her compassionate, intelligent eyes as she recited from memory - it was a magical moment that we get so rarely on tv but it was there and it was powerful and it transcended the fool in front of her.

Let's hope in future that the CBC sends a thoughtful adult who has at least a modicum of insight into the topic at issue in future interviews with people such as Angelou. We are spoiled in Canada because we have come to expect the excellence of a Patrick Watson or an Andy Barrie. Solomon clearly is nowhere near that standard. And we are all the losers for it. Please. Not again.