It's a well known custom amongst Jews that during the omer, for a 33-day period, one neither shaves nor gets a haircut, listens to music, gets married, etc. The reason given for these mourning rituals is that a plague struck Rabbi Akiba's students, killing 24,000 of them during this 33-day period. The Rabbis inform us that they died as a result of their lack of derech eretz--mutual respect and common courtesy--towards each other.
The question that I want to pose is whether or not our acceptance of limited mourning rituals really helps to sensitize ourselves and aids us in bettering our behavior towards others. Does our allowing our facial hair to grow or punishing ourselves by restricting ourselves from listening to music, live or otherwise, really help to change us. Daily in the counting of the omer, we recite a paragraph,after the counting, in which we ask Divine assistance in bettering ourself and further bridge the gap between the sefirot, thus making a true tikun olam. Again, are we seriouisly trying to make those changes or are they empty gestures?
I would like to suggest that if we continue to misjudge people, or groups because of what we hear or even see, without proper investigation, then we continue the sin of Rabbi Akiba's students. The omer should sensitize us to always view everybodyand everything from the side of merit and go the extra mile to do so. Condemnation is easy; trying to find the good in everything is the challenge!