Group Complains About City's Favoritism of Salvation Army

Each year, the city of Meriden, Connecticut sponsors the Festival of Silver Lights in Hubbard Park. From Thanksgiving until the week after New years, the Festival features over 300 lighted displays. For the past two years, each night a different local charity was allowed to collect donations. This year, however, according to Wednesday's Meriden Record Journal, the Salvation Army has been given the exclusive right, throughout the Festival, to solicit funds. The Connecticut ACLU has objected, arguing that a single religious group should not be the exclusive beneficiary of a city-run attraction. The Salvation Army says that the $1400 collected so far will be used for social services, not religious programming.