Monday was a very important day: Martin Luther King Jr. Day.

Social media was flooded with the results of the thousands of "inspirational dr king quote" google searches while speakers incorporated words from Dr. King into the predetermined theme of the service.

These people intended to give off the impression that they were reflecting on Dr. King's life, his legacy, and the incredible things he stood for - equality, peace, and justice.

I don't buy it.

We love to take good words and qualities and mold them into what makes us feel significant and safe - what fits comfortably into our lifestyle and then label it 'Honorable'. I hope you see the issue with this.

When Dr. King said "Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that", he wasn't talking about how you treat your annoying roommate and when he said "I have decided to stick with love. Hate is too great a burden to bear", he wasn't talking about your attitude towards going to work in the morning.

Dr. King was talking about institutional racism, injustice, the fight for freedom. He was talking about the fact that an entire race was not just seen as unimportant but as not even human. He was talking about laws put in place to separate and discriminate. Laws that tore people down and offered no hope or potential to be anything more than property - property that was beat, lynched and disposed of.

These terrible truths are not something that we have permission to look on with regret and sympathy because even though they may look different today - we are still living in them. We are still perpetuating them.

So be careful when you use somebody else's words because if you use them - you better live them too.