The Covid-19 pandemic has showcased some of the best of humanity, but also some of its darkest sides.
Medic Charlie Bougher is hopeful, though.
Forty years ago this year, New Zealanders were really angry with each other.
Pro-tour or anti-tour — the year was 1981 when the Springboks came from apartheid South Africa.
On the second game of the tour, anti-tour protesters got onto the field in Hamilton. It meant the game against Waikato was called off.
Bougher recalled standing at the end of the field where the protesters came through the fence. He was with St John Ambulance and, amid the chaos, he was caring for people who had been hurt.
Among the people Bougher cared for was a Red Squad police officer who had been hit by a large, flying cross. The squad was one of two that were formed to escort the Springboks.
As confrontations between rugby supporters and anti-tour protesters grew increasingly violent, police began wielding batons and riot shields. So, the squads came to represent the brutality of the state. To others, they were a symbol of law and order.
“I was down there, ice-packing his knee after he got hit,” Bougher explained to TVNZ's John Campbell in Matamata.
“And he said, look, this is silly. He said, ‘I’m against the tour.’ But, he said, ‘I’ve got a job to do like you have.’"
Bougher felt the divisions of the time were so great that he wasn’t sure if the country could navigate itself out of it.
“I saw some very angry people.”
A few months later, however, the families, colleagues and communities he saw torn apart came back together.
Some wounds take a long time to heal. But, Bougher thought most distances between people were smaller than they believed — we can choose to hate, and we don’t have to.
So, how can people come back together when they've been angry at each other?
"The issues change, and so you have to know how to move on," he said.
When asked why he was still hopeful after all these years, Bougher said: “I think it’s because, in all of these things, with the bad, you also see the good.
“For everyone who is drunken and violent, and so on, there’s a whole lot more around them I think who are doing their best and carrying on with their lives and so on.
“I think that’s the good thing about our country that I see. That’s what gives me hope.”
Watch Anger, Anxiety & Us from 7.30pm Sunday, December 12 on TVNZ1, 1news.co.nz, on TVNZ OnDemand, or on 1News’ Facebook page. Read more about the programme here.
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