Um, we're sorry?

So this is my open letter of apology to the entire world for the embarrassment of a Closing Ceremonies that my lovely country subjected the rest of you to. I am choosing to believe that what actually happened was that the show ended with Neil Young and it was at that very point that I fell asleep and had what can only be described as THE WORST NIGHTMARE OF MY LIFE.
Canada has the most diverse and talented pool of musical talent of any nation in the entire world (OK, I'm biased, but it also happens to be fuckin true) - why VANOC decided that we should be represented by Nickelback, Avril Lavigne, Hedley and Simple Plan is mind boggling. As I sat there watching the horrendous train wreck that was happening before my eyes, I kept repeating to myself "K-os will save us, K-os will save us" to keep from having to gouge my eyes out. Then, after the pile of trash that was our great 'goodbye' to the world and 'thank you for all your hard work and perseverance' to our own athletes, K-os also proceeded to suck. As the one artist who fought VANOC tooth and nail to go live and not pretape, he was nothing short of pitiful (and I love K-os, so it hurts me to say that).
Knowing all of the great Canadian talent that was in Vancouver over the past couple of weeks (BSS, Feist, Jully Black, GBS, Stars, Justin Nozuka, BNL, Bedouin Soundclash, Corb Lund, Ron Sexmith, Hey Rosetta, The Arkells, Sam Roberts, Kardi, The Constantines, Jason Collett, Gonzales, Alexisonfire, Serena Ryder, Dallas Green, K'Naan, Bell Orchestre, Joel Plaskett, Hawksley Workman, Matt Mays, Jim Cuddy . . . you get the idea) I am ashamed and embarrassed that someone thought Nickelback was the right decision. Any one of the above listed choices would have been better than all the shit that they chose put together. The notable exceptions were of course, Neil Young and Michael Buble.
The other issue surrounding the Ceremonies seems to be that many Canadians were offended by the comedic take on The Maple Leaf Forever. I thought it was one of the very few redeeming moments of the evening, I took the giant beaver and Mounties, flying Moose and Lumberjacks in the way they were intended - with a truly Canadian sense of irony. Nickelback does far more to tarnish our image as a country just by waking up in the morning than all of the giant beavers in the world combined.
After all the work and training that went in to what our Olympians (and those from around the world) did over the past 2 weeks and after all the moments they gave us to be proud, my pride was shot down the second the first Nickelback pyro went off.
I am dreadfully sorry if anyone else had the same nightmare as I did last night and hope that with time, our ears will stop bleeding and our retina will stop burning. Maybe if we wish really hard and click our heels together 3 times it will be erased from our collective memories?
To my fellow Canadians, just think - we never have to hear that shitty "I believe" song again!