Don't hate him for asking

     To the editor:
      In response to the Feb 28 story on a legislative panel approving stiffer penalties for hate crime felonies: According to the article, "Under the 1995 law, a prison term can be increased by up to 25 percent for crimes committed because of race, color, religion, national origin, physical or mental disability or sexual orientation."
      I'm a Catholic, physically and mentally fit, white heterosexual male whose parents are of Costa Rican heritage. What would happen to an atheist, mildly mentally retarded, black lesbian woman from Jamaica who runs me over on purpose with her car?
     THOMAS SAZANI
     Las Vegas