Geneva Mayor's Tweet on bin Laden Says It all

It is a sign of the times that when Geneva Mayor Kevin Burns heard the news Sunday night about the death of Osama bin Laden, one of his first moves was to issue a Tweet of congratulations.

"The city of Geneva salutes President Obama, the U.S. Armed Forces, the intelligence community and all who coordinated the events of this historic night," he said via Twitter at about 11:45 p.m.

Burns ran on the Republican ticket for the 14th District U.S. congressional seat several years ago, but his Tweet and his subsequent comments were completely nonpartisan.

"Every American should praise our president for his decisive action, the Navy Seals for their expert execution of the plan, and those Pakistanis who provided the critical intelligence to help the United States succeed," he added Monday afternoon.

"This doesn't mean the 'war on terror' has concluded," he said. "America and all of us at the local level have to remain vigilant."

Burns, who does a lot of business traveling, noted that the State Department already has issued a travel alert today (Monday), warning travelers to be cautious about anti-American violence.

And locally, law enforcers will continue to be alert, as well.

"It's tough to understand sometimes how national security affects us here in Geneva, but it does," he said. "National security is not in any way separated from local security. Our Police Department works with county, state and federal law officials all the time, and in some cases we're the first line of defense—It's our local law enforcement officials who do the data collection and share with others so that information can be acted on.

"I know it sounds trite," he said, "but we really are all in this together."