Payzant did the right thing. This call for a day off from school to honor Rosa Parks was really an attempt to get some numbers into a march set up to promote everything but the civil rights icon. In fact, she gets sub-head position on the webpage for the event, under the header: Troops Out Now. And Turner's blackmail attempt is disgraceful.

To get an idea of just how right Payzant was, take a look at the names of some of the people or groups involved or sponsoring the "Rosa Parks" march. About the only group missing is the Judean People's Front! (For the complete list check the webpage link above.) Here's a sampling:

Ramsey Clark
Guyanese-American Workers United
Chuck Turner, Boston City Council
Mumia Abu Jamal, Death Row Political Prisoner
Coalition To Free The Angola 3
Code Pink, Bremerton, WA
DestroyIndustry, Raleigh, NC
FIST - Fight Imperialism! Stand Together!
Free People's Movement, New York, NY
Freedom Socialist Party
Of Radical Presence, Santa Fe, NM
Planetary Crisis Action Group(reforming), Taos, NM

This is obviously a political event that intended to hijack Rosa Park's legacy for its own ends.