The portrait of Omran Daqneesh, sitting last month in an ambulance too dazed to cry with a bloodied and dust-caked face amid the bombed out rubble of Aleppo, Syria, cannot be erased from memory.
Nor can last year's photograph of a drowned toddler in the surf, one of at least 12 Syrians whose bodies washed up on the shore near the Turkish resort of Bodrum after they tried unsuccessfully to boat to the Greek island of Kos.
Tragically, however, the heartfelt shock for these pitiable Syrian war victims evaporates into nothingness for too many Americans the moment the phrase "Syrian refugees" is mentioned in politics.
This is especially true in the toxic politics of Donald Trump - the most profane opportunist of our time who has suggested, walked back and then suggested again that Muslims be banned from entering the United States. He has said he would ban Muslims strictly on the basis of their religion.
How about we ban all Catholics because Olympic Park and abortion clinic bomber Eric Rudolph professed Catholicism?
But early Monday, as Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton made it clear that America must target "the bad guys," jihadists and violent extremists rather than an entire religion, Trump was giving jihadists more of the ammunition they need to recruit for what they bill as a U.S. war on the religion of Islam.
Trump blamed the weekend bombings in New York and New Jersey on a lack of profiling, the media and refugees. Never mind that the accused New York and New Jersey bomber is not a refugee, but a 28-year-old U.S. naturalized citizen of Afghan descent.
On Monday evening, Trump's son, Donald Jr., tweeted a meme of a bowl of Skittles with these words over a Trump/Pence Make America Great Again banner: "If I had a bowl of skittles and I told you just three would kill you. Would you take a handful? That's our Syrian refugee problem."
Beneath it all, Junior wrote: "This image says it all. Let's end the politically correct agenda that doesn't put America first."
Here is the refugee reality: There have been 784,000 refugees who have come to the United States since Sept. 11, 2001, and none have participated in a domestic terrorist attack, according to Judd Legum, editor of Think Progress.
Donald Sr. - who unlike Clinton cannot claim that he has already been part of the "hard decision" of taking terrorists off the battlefield and cannot claim he has ever marshaled strategies and policies to fight terrorism - told Fox News that the bombings also are the media's fault because each of us in this country has a protected constitutional right known as "freedom of the press" and "freedom of expression" - the same freedoms the Trumps use not to fight ISIS, but to stoke bigotry.
Trump said he was referring to magazines and websites that tell people how to make bombs and incite violence. He doesn't seem to know that "incitement" already is an exception to the First Amendment. Perhaps if he had known, he might not have suggested that the Second Amendment people might do something about his opponent Hillary Clinton.
Contrary to many right-wing political comments, the refugee vetting process is already the hardest way to get into the United States. The process takes about 18 to 24 months, according to the State Department.
But understanding the Constitution and the fine points of policy get in the way of conservative propaganda. Banning refugees is a simplistic and ineffective solution to a hard problem.
Facts also get in the way of Trump and right-wing fog:
Despite all of the right-wing McCarthyism that looks for religious and ideological litmus tests, Americans are seven times more likely to be killed by right-wing extremists like Eric Rudolph and Charleston church shooter Dylan Roof and Oklahoma City Federal Courthouse bomber Timothy McVeigh than by Muslim terrorists.
The refugees need our help, not our fear.
What we most need to fear is ourselves and people like Donald Trump.