What would make a young mother want to kill her children? That was the big question when this near tragic event first occurred. There were rumors that there had been domestic violence, that for some reasons she didn’t want her husband near her children. More recent reports from CNN state that Ebony Wilkerson had suffered a number of traumatic events, and all at the time that she was going through the major emotional and physical changes that pregnancy causes many women.
#1. Ms. Wilkerson had reportedly been raped prior to becoming suicidal, while she was pregnant.
#2. Ms. Wilkerson had been the victim of domestic abuse. Her sister reported that the violent husband had held a knife to her throat when she attempted to help her sister whom he had attempted to strangle.
The young mother may have thought she could drown her fears
Currently being held on $1.2 million bond and charged with three counts of attempted murder, the 32 year old mother, Ebony Wilkerson, who drove her children into the ocean near Daytona Beach, FL on March 4, 2013, is suspected of suffering from a mental illness. Now, normally, someone suffering from an illness is hospitalized and treated with medication, etc. and apparently, she had checked herself out of a hospital just before leaving her sister’s home and heading to the beach. Her sister had called 911 to say that she was worried since Ebony had spoken of feeling that there were “demons” in the sister’s home, causing her to leave.
Police had then stopped her while driving with her children, ages, 10, 9 and 3 and questioned her briefly, but felt that she answered questions appropriately and that she did not meet the criteria necessary to detain her for mental health reasons. It was said that Mrs. Wilkerson was fleeing her husband whom she felt was dangerous to her children. Reports have stated that Mrs. Wilkerson was pregnant.
While the movie Mandela was very moving and informative, its depiction of prison life and its impact on Mandela seemed painted with a broad brush. One knew that Mandela must have had a special weapon to protect himself and maintain his focus on his mission. That special weapon was very likely his mind. The coincidental help that accelerated him to the highest position in South African government may have been born of the prayers of many but his concentration on his intentions may have prepared him for ascending to his destiny.
Hill Harper, of CSI: NYC and Covert Affairs, has written a book to aid in the continuing development of mind power even in confinement. Hopefully, what is missed in everyday interaction with family and life on the outside, can be compensated by strengthening inner life and inner power. The tools created from that can allow for catching up much lost time.
The son of a psychiatrist father and anesthesiologist mother, Hill Harper is not just an actor (CSI: NY and Covert Affairs) but also an author of a number of books meant to encourage young black men and women. His latest, Letters to An Incarcerated Brother, tends a growing cancer of racism in America – the epidemic incarceration of our young men.
A graduate of Harvard Law School, Hill points out that one in six black men is incarcerated now. He expects that one in six number to increase to one in three. That fact along with the letters he received from so many inmates caused him to listen, learn and then aid the young men who have been locked up so young, long before they have had any chance to discover their real worth and power.
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