Janet Napolitano:

All right.

Number one. Being in the dentist chair and listening to the drill. Did you ever see the movie Marathon Man? Yes? Remember the scene with the dentist, you know, Is it safe? Is it safe? Yeah, I think that's maybe the most chilling movie scene of any.

Number two. An incident of domestic terrorism. The first thing you have to do is take care of the injured and work with the families of those who were killed. Right. Second thing, and simultaneous to that, you've got to be figuring out who did it and whether there are other attacks in the works. Are there other things that you need to be preparing for? And then, you know, one would hope that the president would be able to communicate with the country about what happened and what steps are being taken to both respond and to prevent other kinds of attacks. What I worry about is not so much that a 9/11 style attack could occur, but a plot where terrorists, for example, go into shopping malls during the holiday shopping season and they're actually organized to do several cities all at once. And think about, not only the possibility of death or injury to those who are out just shopping, but also then the damage to our economy and to our national psyche.

Number three. A massive cyber attack. This is something I dealt with a lot when I was secretary of homeland security. But if you're asking me, “Is it kind of scary?” Yes kind of scary to think that our electricity grids our water systems our traffic control systems, you know, all subject to being attacked and breached and, you know, causing major chaos

Number four. Forest fire. This is now the second year in a row where we've had big fires burning entire communities to the ground in northern California. You know, it's something like I've never seen before. It's terrible.

Number five. Climate change, and all the effects of climate change. It makes me worried and indeed scared about, if this is what's happening now what's going to be happening 10 years from now, or 20 years from now?

Number six. Being in a plane on the tarmac and not knowing what is happening.

Number seven. Snakes. I'm talking a reptilian snake not a human snake. I remember one time I was backpacking with some friends in New Mexico and I was pitching my tent and I had pegged down the four corners and I was laying out the mattress and all of a sudden I see this thing kind of squirming underneath the floor of the tent and I had actually pitched it over a baby rattlesnake.

Number eight. Having to eat broccoli. I can't stand broccoli. I've never been able to stand it. I'm probably offending every broccoli farmer in the United States today. But it's the one thing I think I share in common with George Bush. Just not in the broccoli fan club. Protocol and good manners require that you eat what's put in front of you, so I'm pretty lucky that I like most foods.

Number nine. An earthquake. I was in my first earthquake maybe four years ago and it was weird it was like at two AM in the morning. And you know I woke up and something felt kind of strange and then I realized that, you know, the whole floor was shaking, and then it was over. Anyway, so I turned over I went back to sleep and about seven o'clock in the morning I hear this knocking on my bedroom door and there's a man standing there, and I'm like “Well what what what are you? Who are you?” And it was the elevator guy who had come up all of the stairs because the machinery that operates the building's elevators is on the top floor and he was unfamiliar with the layout of the top floor. So he entered into the residence as opposed to going into where the machinery was. I think he scared me more than the actual earthquake did.

And number ten. Being stuck in an elevator.

My name is Janet Napolitano and these are 10 things that scare me.