Do not let this man to have died in vain

Read this article and then if, God forbid, you are using drugs, stop immediately in this poor man's honor.

Drug use and addictions are to blame for much of the destruction of humanity's goodness, and there is no nice way to put it than that. "Casual" use of "light" drugs destroys just as thoroughly.

Stop the insanity, get treatment and quit and if you are enabling, stop enabling so that others feel the pressure to quit.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-burned-landlord_25aug25,0,1186817.story

The South Side landlord who police say was doused with gasoline by a former tenant and set on fire died early Sunday, his daughter said.

Harlan Hayes, 77, never regained consciousness at the University of Chicago Medical Center after suffering burns over 90 percent of his body on Tuesday, Lisa Stovall said. "It's really traumatic for me to think that somebody would do this," she said.

Charged in the attack is Donald Hardy, 28, whom Stovall described as a handyman for the last three or four years in the building that her father had owned for decades in the 6300 block of South Ellis Avenue in the Woodlawn neighborhood. Hardy mopped floors and did other odd jobs, she said.

"The way he did this, he wanted my dad to suffer by setting him on fire," she said.

Hardy was being held without bail on charges of attempted first-degree murder. As of Sunday night, the charges had not been upgraded after Hayes' death.

Stovall said her father evicted Hardy, his mother and other family members after getting a letter from the city alleging drug activity in their apartment. Chicago police would not comment, citing the ongoing investigation.

Cook County Circuit Court records show that Hardy has been convicted of drug charges in the last several years. Stovall described her father as a man who worked to improve his neighborhood by helping to organize annual block parties, encouraging youths to stay away from drugs and collecting back-to-school supplies.

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Hayes served in the Marines during the Vietnam War, Stovall said. A U.S. Postal Service worker for 30 years, he retired in the 1990s to take care of his mother, who suffered from Alzheimer's. He was taking care of a 57-year-old sister with Down syndrome when he was killed.