Metro’s Man and Woman of the Year: Take your pick

Should TV reporter Lara Logan be Metro's Woman of the Year? Sheforced the world to confront some ugly truths about the treatment of women in Arab countries when she was sexually assaulted by a mob of men in Tahir Square, Cairo, during the Egyptian uprisings. Her bravery and fortitude, despite a terrible ordeal, impressed many.

For the past two years, Metro has asked its readers to nominate the man and woman who affected news headlines to the greatest extent over the year.

Today, we launch our 2011 Man and Woman of the Year event — but as we do so, we acknowledge that the winners this year may be a group of people rather than individuals.

How can we ignore the claims of the Occupy Wall Street movement, whose activities have dominated the news headlines for the last two months? Others may feel it right to nominate the 1 percent.

We feel certain that many readers will wish to nominate Navy SEAL Team 6, the group of warriors who killed Osama bin Laden.

As we look back over 2011, we remember the people of Egypt, the activists of the Arab Spring and those who fought for regime change in Libya.

Naturally, some readers will wish to nominate individuals. President Barack Obama ordered the bin Laden mission; and on the basis that he was hardly out of the headlines all year until his death last month, who can ignore the nomination of Muammar Gaddafi?

When the U.S. federal government faced a shutdown in April, House of Representatives Speaker John Boehner was in the thick of the conflict.

Also in April, Prince William and Kate Middleton had the world enthralled with their fairy tale wedding at Westminster Abbey.

They made the news: You decide

Nominations open today and will continue until 5 p.m. on Friday, Dec. 9.

In the Metro edition of Monday, Dec. 12, we will publish a shortlist of those receiving the most nominations, and will invite readers to vote for their favorites.

Metro’s Man and Woman (or People) of the Year will be announced in Metro’s special end-of-year edition, published on Monday, Dec. 26.

How to nominate

Man or Woman of the Year:

To nominate someone from Man or Woman of the Year, e-mail us at mwoty@metro.us and tell us, in 100 words or fewer, why they deserve the title.

Nominations will be accepted until 5 p.m. on Friday, Dec. 9.

Readers will be able to vote on a shortlist of nominees from Monday, Dec. 12 to Thursday, Dec. 22.