For once, I congratulate The Miami Herald's editorial board for running, in full, the letter from Yoani Sanchez, a beautiful and courageous young woman whom I hope to meet someday. In it, she unreservedly urges the lifting of the ``travel ban,'' which, in fact, exists only on paper and serves only to keep airfares high. I urge The Miami Herald to support her in this.

My daughter and I went to Cuba three years ago. We were the sort of visitors that Sanchez wrote about, and that most American visitors are or want to be. We stayed at a casa particular in Old Havana, lived on a tight budget and wandered about endlessly, chatting up ordinary Cubans in the city and at the beaches at Guanabo and Santa Maria.

We were privileged to attend Rosh Hashana services at the Sinagoga Bet Sholom in Vedado. I have never met warmer and more courageous people anywhere. Like Sanchez, they are consumed, not with bitterness, but with a desire to live their lives well and bring greater liberty and prosperity to their country. We hope to return soon.

RICHARD ROSICHAN, Miami Beach