什么困扰着你？谁能为此做点什么？你能说什么来说服那个人去关心或做出改变？
如果我们都读了你的信呢？你怎么能让我们也关心呢？
这些是我们要求您在新的公开信竞赛中思考的一些问题。公开信是一封公开的抗议或呼吁信，通常写给个人、团体或机构，但面向公众。想想你可以在网上和社交媒体上找到的许多“亲爱的泰勒·斯威夫特”的公开信：当然，它们是写给斯威夫特女士的，但它们实际上是作者分享对女权主义、门票销售、音乐行业或......这样的例子不胜枚举。
我们也邀请您这样做。就你关心的任何问题写一封你自己的公开信，只要它对《纽约时报》的普通读者来说也是合适和有意义的。
你应该写信给谁？你应该说什么？
看看这些年来在《纽约时报》上发表的几个例子。（在《泰晤士报》中，公开信经常出现在“意见”部分，因为它们是以信件形式写的有说服力的文章，正如你所看到的。
例如，有时一封公开信旨在公开呼吁某人，就像编剧亚伦·索金 （Aaron Sorkin） 在 2019 年写给 Facebook（现为 Meta）首席执行官马克·扎克伯格 （Mark Zuckerberg） 的这封信一样。它是这样开始的：
Mark,
In 2010, I wrote “The Social Network” and I know you wish I hadn’t. You protested that the film was inaccurate and that Hollywood didn’t understand that some people build things just for the sake of building them. (We do understand that — we do it every day.)
I didn’t push back on your public accusation that the movie was a lie because I’d had my say in the theaters, but you and I both know that the screenplay was vetted to within an inch of its life by a team of studio lawyers with one client and one goal: Don’t get sued by Mark Zuckerberg.
It was hard not to feel the irony while I was reading excerpts from your recent speech at Georgetown University, in which you defended — on free speech grounds — Facebook’s practice of posting demonstrably false ads from political candidates. I admire your deep belief in free speech. I get a lot of use out of the First Amendment. Most important, it’s a bedrock of our democracy and it needs to be kept strong.
But this can’t possibly be the outcome you and I want, to have crazy lies pumped into the water supply that corrupt the most important decisions we make together. Lies that have a very real and incredibly dangerous effect on our elections and our lives and our children’s lives.
但一封公开信不一定是由名人写给名人的。在一封致告我家人回中国的女人的公开信中，记者迈克尔·罗（Michael Luo）在街上对一位匿名女性说。它的开头是这样的：
Dear Madam:
Maybe I should have let it go. Turned the other cheek. We had just gotten out of church, and I was with my family and some friends on the Upper East Side of Manhattan. We were going to lunch, trying to see if there was room in the Korean restaurant down the street. You were in a rush. It was raining. Our stroller and a gaggle of Asians were in your way.
But I was, honestly, stunned when you yelled at us from down the block, “Go back to China!”
公开信还可以表彰和感谢某人，并引起人们对他们工作的持续重要性的关注。2017年，在巴拉克·奥巴马（Barack Obama）的总统任期结束时，说唱歌手T.I.给他写了一封公开信：
You entered humbly into our worlds from the streets of the South Side of Chicago and galvanized a generation. You resonated from the barbershops to the airwaves to the streets of every hood across America. Many of US did not know your name, nor did we truly understand the impact you would have on the world in the years, months and days that followed.
As I reflect, I am filled with gratitude, outrage, grief, anger, humility and appreciation, both for the things you helped bring to light and the many things we still have yet to realize.
或者，他们可以像专栏作家蒂莫西·伊根（Timothy Egan）在2009年写的《亲爱的毕业生》（Dear Graduate）那样，激励和激励人心。摘录如下：
Eat a hot dog. With lots of mustard. The kind you can get for two dollars from street vendors just outside the ballpark, a trick I picked up from Ash Green, gentleman editor at Alfred A. Knopf. He passed this wisdom on before the recession.
While we’re on the subject: Learn to cook, something they don’t teach at fancy-pants colleges. Millions for quantum physics and deconstructing Dostoevsky, nothing on how to make enchiladas for 20 people.
At times, your life will have moments, days, even weeks of despair. Trust me: there is no bout of blues that a rich Bolognese sauce, filling every cubic inch of kitchen air, cannot cure.
And that brings me to: Take risks. I don’t mean ski the double diamond runs, ask for a card in blackjack with 15 showing and the dealer holding a king, or hit a high note in a karaoke bar, while sober. That goes without saying.
同学们，请阅读上面的公开信，然后告诉我们：你最想给谁写一封公开信？
以下是一些可以帮助您集思广益的问题，您可能想要针对哪些受众：
有没有一个名人让你生气，或者让你感兴趣或印象深刻？或者您想向谁提供您的专业知识、建议或意见？像政治家、运动员、公司领导人、艺术家或艺人？
有没有一个有权势的人或机构，你想公开呼吁？你认为需要以某种方式追究责任的人？他们做了什么你认为其他人需要知道的事情？
是否有人或团体想激励或激励他们采取行动？你希望他们考虑、反思或做什么？
有没有离家更近的人，比如父母、朋友、老师或邻居，你想找人？你会对这个人说些什么，对普通观众来说是有意义的、重要的和合适的？
有没有一个人或团体，你想向他们致敬或感谢他们，或者反思他们对社会的贡献，就像T.I.在给奥巴马先生的信中所做的那样？这个人或机构做了什么，对你和其他人有什么影响？为什么你认为值得公开承认？
如果没有一个人或团体浮现在脑海中，也许某个原因或问题激发了你的灵感。
十年来，我们举办了一场编辑比赛，参加比赛的学生热情地写下了各种各样的事情：人工智能、快时尚、种族、跨性别权利、大学录取、父母监禁、同人小说、下雪天、模因、凌乱等等.你仍然可以写下那些让你兴奋的问题和想法——但这一次，你将写一封信给一个有能力为这个问题带来改变或理解的人。以下是一些可能有助于您集思广益的问题：
您关心什么原因或问题？为什么它们对你很重要？你和他们有什么经验？
你希望看到什么变化？为什么？这种变化对你或你关心的社区有什么意义？
你希望更多人了解什么？你对哪些事情非常了解，你认为其他人会从更好地理解中受益？
一旦你意识到你的问题，问问自己：
谁可以做出改变，无论大小，本地还是全球，来解决这个问题？
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